FateStay Killer
by Shengli
Summary: Upon his return to Fuyuki from London, with Saber and Rin, Rin practices the Kaleidoscope in Shirou's yard. Opening the portal, they see a boy with brown hair fighting a girl with black hair to protect another girl behind him. Shirou then rushes into the portal to help him. Now, stuck in this new world, will Shirou now move up from protecting a city to saving a country? (Canceled!)
1. Chapter 1: Save the Youth

**Chapter 1: Save the Youth**

Burning embers twisted in the moonlight. Shrieks, moans and groans of pain filled the air of the desolated neighborhood, as the horrors of the fire left nothing to the imagination. Many burned. Many cried. Hope and life disappeared and were replaced with despair and death. And within the inferno was a singed, disheveled red-haired boy, about 6 years in age, who kept on walking through the flames as if possessed. He had survived so far, and through instinct, sought to continue, despite his self-assurance that he would not live.

Step by step, the boy trudged through the flames, losing all that made him human. He forced himself to sacrifice parts of his emotions to feed his will and intent. Love, hate, grief, sorrow, happiness, joy, all disappeared from him until he fell with nothing left to sacrifice.

With his back on the ground, he could not feel anything. He stared with golden-steel eyes at the darkened, cloud filled sky, filled with promises of a rain that would not come in time. He was a husk of a human, fated to crackle within the fiery hell he had traveled in for so long. He closed his eyes…

And opened them again to see a man, who picked him up and cradled me in his arms. He saw the man speak to him, and though he did not understand what the man had told him, he nodded slightly. He saw the man, this unkempt, black haired man with a somewhat aged look in his eyes start to cry. His tears flowed down his face, and ran past the joyous smile his savior possessed on his face. The boy once more closed his eyes, this time in safety, and thought,

_"__Could I be this happy, if I saved someone as well?"_

This was the meeting between Emiya Kiritsugu, and the red haired boy he adopted, who ten years later would later participate in a war for an artifact that could grant any wish. A war with magic, a war with conflicts between ancient historical figures, called Heroic Spirits. He wanted to save, wanted to be a hero and save both friend and foe alike.

This boy's name… was Emiya Shirou.

**Ten Years Later…**

"**I am the bone of my sword**"

All of the Noble Phantasms on Gilgamesh's side move, seeking to take Shirou's life. But they won't now.

Shirou pulled out one of his own Noble Phantasms, a shield created on that hill of swords…

Rho Aias flickered into existence in front of him, stopping the multitude of swords that shot towards him like so many arrows. It won't block them forever, but it'll last long enough to finish the aria.

"Guh!" A petal breaks, damaging Shirou's body. The shield is the reflection of his vitality. With each one broken, his body is further damaged. But it doesn't stop him from reciting the next line.

"**Steel is my body, and fire is my blood.**"

Another petal goes now. This time his arm screams in pain.

"What?" Gilgamesh says in confusion.

"**I have created over a thousand blades.**

**Unaware of loss,**

**Nor aware of gain.**"

He could feel he circuits overloading, breaking as the massive amount of prana seeks to escape.

Another petal shatters, making blood drip out of his mouth, but the shield holds steady.

"I cannot break through…?" Gilgamesh says, as he continues to batter Rho Aias.

"**Withstood pain to create weapons.**

**Waiting for one's arrival.**"

The prana inside him rages around. But he contains it in order to achieve the one purpose he had devoted himself to so far.

Another petal vanishes, but he continues.

"**I have no regrets, this is the only path.**"

He finally shatters his limits, breaking the "darkness" that had inhibited him and reached past that "darkness."

"**My whole life was… Unlimited Blade Works!**"

And the world was bathed in flames, and swords littered the space he had created.

**Two Years After the War…**

He survived through the war. He survived having his heart pierced by Lancer (thanks to Tohsaka), and managed to summon Saber, who then fended off Lancer. He went to the church, where he was taught the rules of the conflict. He then participated in the Fifth Holy Grail War, with his ideal to save everyone. He went through all the horrors. The jaunty but terrifying might of Lancer (Cu Chulainn), the pants-soiling might of Berserker (Hercules). He fought against the beauty Rider (Medusa), but never truly saw her full capabilities since she summoned no mount as a Rider. He also faced the sneaky, cunning Caster (Medea of Colchis), and her own servant the fabled, skillful Assassin (Sasaki Kojiro). One of his most prominent foes though was Archer, another him from another timeline who believed in his ideals until it stabbed him in the back. He fought and gradually obtained the skills of his future self, and obtained the arts of Tracing and the Reality Marble. He later used the skills gained from his future self against his other most prominent enemy, Gilgamesh, the Archer from the Fourth Holy Grail War, and defeated him. While he did so, Tohsaka helped rescue Shinji Matou, his "friend" from being turned into the grail, which was corrupted. Defeating Kotomine Kirei, Gilgamesh's Master from the fourth war, they then destroyed the Grail with Saber's and Archer's help. With that, Archer disappeared, but thanks to Tohsaka, Saber got to stay as Tohsaka's Servant.

Even though he went through that hell though, he was still slightly scared at what Tohsaka asked him to do.

"Tohsaka, are you sure we should be practicing the Kaleidoscope?" Emiya Shirou, now 18, cautiously asked as Tohsaka Rin tested out the feel of the Jeweled Sword he projected. All it took was one look at the Jeweled Sword in her mentor's case, and it was stored as a weapon within his Reality Marble.

"Indeed, Rin. We should be cautious of another mishap. We don't want _that_ incident to happen again." Saber said as she watched us. Even though she looked stoic, Shirou could make out the hidden shuddering she said as she pointed out _that incident_ to Tohsaka again.

They were in the middle of Shirou's backyard in the middle of the night, standing in a small barrier Tohsaka erected. They all came back from the Clock Tower for a vacation, and she wanted to practice what she had learned about the Second Magic from the Wizard Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg. So far, she _claimed_ that her calculations were correct, and that the science was right. Shirou trusted Tohsaka like none other, even if her occasional experiments did get out of hand every once in a while.

Plus, she was his girlfriend. There was no way that she would do something extremely dangerous in his home! Although some of her experiments do turn out pretty bad. The worst thing that ever happened was that time that she summoned those metal-eating humanoid golems, and they got to his kitchen and ate every one of his pots and knives. Shirou shuddered when he remembered he had to tell Taiga about getting takeout because he wasn't able to cook. He'd rather face Berserker again than face an angry Torashinai-wielding Taiga.

He also shuddered at what happened to the golems when Saber saw what happened. She was taking a bath at the time when they invaded the kitchen, and she had rushed out with a towel and saw them eating the pots. No pots meant that Shirou couldn't cook. Shirou not cooking meant no delicious food. No delicious food meant that they had to get crappy Chinese takeout.

She dismembered all of them, then decapitated them, then cleaved them in half, and then finally allowed Rin to send the remains back. By the end of it all, Excalibur was covered in oil that looked very ominously like blood, and Saber looked at Shirou, with somewhat abated fury in her eyes, and started trembling in sadness.

Saber without Shirou's cooking is extremely scary.

Despite Rin's assurances, Shirou felt as if something wrong would happen. It started as a tingling along his spine, and he just couldn't shake it off. He learned that Archer had E-ranked Luck from the Grail War, and since Archer was basically him from another timeline…

"What! Don't be such a baby Shirou! And you too Saber! Remember, Shirou projected this sword himself. That means that this sword should have all of its powers, be only slightly weaker than the original, and in the hands of a capable mage, be able to open rifts to parallel dimension!" Rin scolded, and then stood up proudly.

"Besides, I received training from Zelretch himself! I should be able to control the precise amount of power, open a rift to another dimension and talk to an alternate self of mine!" Tohsaka walked slowly into the center, and revised her notes in her head, muttering slightly.

Shirou and Saber looked once at each other, smiled and simultaneously sighed inwardly. When Rin's pride and experience was questioned, she often became as irritated as a petulant child. She then often explained to the other person _why_ she was correct, _why _they were incorrect, and proceeded to make them look like an idiot, demoralizing them immensely.

Rin continued muttering, "… Carried over the two… contained in a boundary field… hopefully no more dimensional monstrosities… don't want a repeat with those perverted tentacle monsters…"

_…__Wait, what?_ Shirou glanced up again, this time in clear worry.

"Oi, Shirou? Why do we need to be afraid of tentacle monsters?" asked Saber inquisitively.

"Urk!" Shirou responded eloquently, "I'll, uh, tell you another time."

Saber wasn't the most technologically-savvy person in the world, and practitioners of magic often avoided the use of technology entirely. Shirou wasn't a typical magus though, and so he had been one of the few mages that actually used a computer. Unfortunately for Shirou, one of his friends tricked him into looking up the Kraken on Bing images. He immediately switched to Google afterwards.

That search engine should not be used by any child in general to look up any mythological creatures with multiple slimy appendages.

"Alright, I'm ready to begin!" Rin exclaimed as she stood in the middle of the bounded field. She closed her eyes and started injecting the sword with prana.

Saber tensed as she felt the sword start to radiate light, and Shirou watched as Rin continued to concentrate. They remained quiet, however, as even the slightest disruption might result in an interruption of the prana flow. Without the required amount of prana in the blade, the prana had to be used somehow. Escaping the sword, it would then usually turn into a blade of light.

Finally, Shirou sensed that the blade accumulated enough prana to perform the intended purpose. Shining brightly, the atmosphere was tensed as Rin slung the sword over her head in a two handed grip. Holding tightly, she then swung.

"HAAA-"As the sword swung over her shoulder, a distinctive sort of distortion appeared where the blade tip touched in the air. "-AAH!" Rin finished the giant vertical slice as the line of distortion suddenly expanded in a sort of oval shape.

"Yes! It worked! That'll show that old geezer-"

"Wait, Tohsaka, look at the portal!" Shirou said, pointing at the magical opening she wrought.

They all stood still as they stared at the portal Rin created. Shimmering within the air, the esoteric construct shined with an unnatural light as it floated in mid-air. As it did so, the blank emptiness in the middle of the portal flickered suddenly, as soon showed an image like a TV would. Within the portal, they saw a boy and a girl facing each other in a clearing near a building. Behind the boy stood yet another girl who was close to the door of the building.

The boy had a mess of medium length brown hair, longer than Shirou's, with a cowlick over his face. His green eyes shone with determination, and his facial features looked only slightly younger than Shirou's. They were dead set with intent to fight, showing a resolve that Shirou could sympathize with. He was dressed in a white collared shirt, with dark bluish, grayish pants and leather boots and gloves. He was holding his straight-edged sword out against the black-haired girl, with a stance that showed that he was a slightly experienced fighter.

In contrast, the girl he faced looked about the same age, but her stance belied years of skill with the sword. Her weapon was a katana, about a meter long. She wore a black dress and skirt along with a black cloak, the said dress having a striped collar of white and black and a red tie with a red skirt cover and red belt. She also wore red armguards and wore black shoes. Her black hair flowed like shadows in the night breeze, and her red eyes looked on coldly at the girl behind the boy.

The girl behind the boy looked as if she were a noble. Her dress had white sleeves, and was blue from her neck to her feet, with a black midsection under her chests. She had a ribbon with a blue pompom in her blond hair. She looked extremely frightened, probably because of the quiet, but dangerously sharp killing intent exuded by the black haired female.

Shirou, Rin and Saber looked on as the girl examined the boy protecting the girl, and then she spoke.

"You aren't a target," she spoke. "There is no need to kill you." She said dismissively.

"But you plan to kill this girl, don't you?" said the boy fiercely, standing in front of the noble-looking girl.

"Yep." She responded forwardly, as if she was already used to and prepared for the idea.

"Yep?!" The boy seemed shocked at how straightforward she was.

"If you get in my way, I'll kill you," the black-haired girl stated.

"That doesn't mean I can just run!" responded the boy.

It was decided. The girl readied her blade, and said, "Is that so? Then I shall eliminate you."

The boy made a strangled sound as he heard her declaration.

Shirou watched them square off, preparing to fight. He knew with one look that the boy will not defeat the girl. She was too experienced, and the boy too inexperienced. The most he would be able to do would be to defend against her blows. He saw how he was defending the blonde noble, and the callousness of the girl in stating that she will kill them both. He prepared himself, and stood up from the porch he sat on.

"Shirou…" Saber inquired, noticing him stand up. "Don't tell me…" she watched warily as her former Master took a glance at her, with some pain in his eyes before they steeled themselves.

Rin did not let his action go unnoticed either. "Shirou! Oi, Shirou!" She yelled at him. "You are not interfering! You should not interfere with the matters of another dimension. And if you jump in, we could lose you forever! You know that there are infinite amounts of parallel dimensions! If you jump in, if you jump in…" She trailed off as she saw his conflicted expression. Then those eyes of gold once again steeled themselves.

"Before me lies people in danger, people who I can save!" He declared with determination in his face. "I will save them, I must save them! I won't let anyone in trouble in front of my eyes be killed, no matter what. To sacrifice one life, even mine, for two lives," he said, eyes blazing, "Is a sacrifice I will make!"

"Trace, on!" He shouted, pumping his body full of od.

Reinforcing his body, he sped towards the battle already in action in the rift, as he projected Kanshou and Bakuya in his hands. He saw Rin's own determination, and knew she would try and stop him. He was not disappointed.

"Saber, restrain him!" Rin commanded as she prepared to stop him.

"Yes, Master!" responded Saber as she sped towards Shirou, gauntlets grasping for his sweatshirt sleeves.

Shirou knew that Saber was stronger than him in every category, the only chance he would have is if he could catch her off guard. Twisting his body to face her, he threw Bakuya, knowing she would dodge. Her eyes widened, never thinking that Shirou would ever deliberately wound her, and she dodged to the side. The spinning pinwheel of metal spun passed her, attracting her attention long enough for him to trip her. She fell to the ground, as Shirou continued heading to the dimensional portal, tracing another Bakuya and dispersing the other into prana.

Of course, he broke down the Bakuya he threw before it hit his house. No sense in damaging his home, especially since Saber and Rin currently lived with him.

Plus, his budget was already strained as is, with regards to Saber's eating habits. He couldn't afford to spend money on wood with the way Saber ate. Servants just need prana be damned! Saber broke that rule entirely!

Rin tried to fire several Gandr bullets at him, all which he deflected using his swords. As he ran near her, he didn't look, but let a tear slide down his face. He didn't want to go and leave her behind after all. As he passed, he whispered as he jumped in the portal.

She heard him in the wind of his passing, almost as if it was a message he let his wind carried. Simple words that stated his thoughts, that he knew he probably wouldn't be able to come back.

"I'm sorry, Rin."

And with those words, he rushed into the rift, felt a slight tingle as he passed into the dimension, and block the black-haired girl's sword from decapitating the boy, who had managed to block her attacks long enough for him to intervene.

Then the rift was sealed.

Saber got up, and as the dimensional rift was sealed, she looked on at her Master in red in concern.

"Rin?"

"Shirou…" Rin started shaking, her vision already blurry. "Shirou…" The shaking was more visible now.

Saber stepped back slowly, recognizing her Master's emotions. She prepared herself for the incoming shout.

"SHIROU! YOU IDIIOOOT!" Rin screamed angrily.

* * *

Shirou threw the girl back with all the strength he could summon, throwing her a few good meters. Her facial features hadn't changed much, but the expression in her eyes spoke of her surprise.

"You…" She said. "You… that strength… Who are you?"

"Isn't it rude to ask for another person's name before you introduce yourself?" He replied smartly. Being around Tohsaka for a few years make him more cynical, though not as much as Archer.

"…Akame." She replied, holding her blade up again.

"Emiya Shirou." He mirrored.

Both of them rushed towards each other, blades twinkling in the moonlight as they both began the dance of death.

* * *

"Wow…" said the boy with brown hair as he looked at their clash. He saw how the girl Akame swung her katana around for a precise decapitation, the blade screaming as it homed in on Shirou's neck. However, Shirou blocked the blow with one of his swords, and used the other sword to attack her side. Akame jumped back, and then rushed back in again with a diagonal slash. This time Shirou stepped back, the tip of the katana almost scratching him, and retaliated in exchange. Back and forth, they both launched blows that would incapacitate, if not kill, the other. Slash, dodge, cut, block… until they both separated once again. The whole exchange took less than 30 seconds, yet in that amount of time, no less than 20 killing blows were made by both sides.

He thought he might have heard Shirou say something, maybe about tracing?

Shirou's eyes widened a bit, and narrowed as he took another step back.

"That's a pretty nasty blade you have right there, don't you? Murasame, the One-Cut Killer? The poisonous blade that with one hit, injects a lethal poison into the wounded target's body, killing them within a minute."

Akame was surprised. He knew her Teigu?

"… What is your purpose? Why are you protecting my target?" She inquired.

"I'm just a protector of the innocent. I saw those two in trouble, and I saw that boy over there defending that girl. I don't know what it is that you have against her, but if you want to harm them…" He paused, determination showing, "I'll stop you myself!"

"Hold on, just a second!" A new voice rang out.

A new girl appeared, a beautiful blonde girl who seemed to wear animal like accessories on her person. She had what looked like lion ears and claws on herself, and (Shirou noted with _very_ detached interest) a bust that could give Rider a run for her money. She was rubbing her head, and grabbed Akame, dragging her back a little.

"What are you doing?" Akame said, looking up at the new girl.

"Wait just a sec, I think we get them on our side." She argued.

"Besides, I owe that kid back there a favor, so I can't let you kill him yet." She stated, winking at the boy.

"AAAHHH! You're that blonde girl with the big boobs who stole my money!" the boy pointed, his face lit up in angry recognition.

Shirou nearly face-palmed. Yeah, he noticed those too, but that is just not something you are supposed to say out loud during a life-or-death situation.

"Yeah, yeah, but that's not important right now. You two," she called, looking at Shirou and the other boy. "You guys said that you were protectors of the innocent right?"

"Right." They both nodded.

"Well can you guys truly say that girl is innocent after you look at this…" she replied, walking slowly towards the building.

Shirou and the boy tensed as she passed, not sure if she would try to assassinate the girl as she walked past, but their fears were unfounded. Finally, she reached the doors, broke them down, and revealed what was inside the building.

"Take a look. This is the darkness of the capital. This is what the people you were trying to protect were doing." She informed them.

Hell. That's all there was in that single tiny space. Bodies hung from ropes around their neck, the naked figures looked starved, with hollow looking eyes and mouths opening screaming in silent agony, even if their spirits already left. Corpses were put on the tables, with massive cuts, showing disgusting and gruesome vivisections of the cadavers. Cages also littered the floor, filled with human excrement, the people inside already long dead. But most importantly, the smell. There was the sickeningly sweet stench of decay, the smell of feces and urine, but hanging over all of those was the heavy stench of blood.

"What, what is this…" The boy asked, his voice strangled.

"They lure people from the countryside in with their sweet words, torturing and playing with them until they're dead." She stated simply. "That is what the household really is."

Shirou gripped his swords tightly, his knuckles turning white. He wanted to deny the atrocious sight in front of him, but he couldn't, no matter how much he wished. His stomach turned circles, anger and disgust wanting to make him heave. His eyes showed fury, anguish and sorrow. Not looking at any of the horrors in particular, he looked up at the boy as he spoke.

"Sayo… Oi, Sayo? Is that you Sayo?" he whispered, looking at one of the corpses that was suspended from her arms.

That dead girl would have been beautiful, but her body indicated that she had been dead for some time. Straight black hair fell down her shoulders, clumped together with blood. Her skin, which might have once looked unmarred, was bruised and bloody. Shirou did not see her face. He did not want to, out of respect for the other teen.

"Is that someone you know?" asked the blonde girl with the lion ears.

Looking back at her when she spoke, Shirou noticed the other girl slowly start backing away, frightened, not by the horrors in the building, but of the living around her. That assured Shirou of her hand in the atrocities.

The blonde with the animal accessories looked back at what he saw, and also saw the other girl backing up.

"Hold on…!" the blonde gasped as two spinning pinwheels of light shot past her.

The first of the two, a black blade that seemed to drink in the moonlight and radiate its own light, completely took off the girl's right leg below the knee, spraying the gore everywhere as it rotated and spun into the grass. The other blade, reflecting the moon like a perfect mirror, bit into the noble's left ankle, cutting so deeply it severed the tendon.

"AAAAAHHHH! FUCK! OW!" the noble screamed, desperately grabbing at her right leg, try to staunch the flowing blood.

The two assassins looked surprised at his brutality, but looked at each other briefly and nodded. She got what was coming for her after all. The boy however wasn't so sure. He took a step towards Shirou, shouting "Oi, what are you doing-"

"Did you forget what she did to your friend?" Shirou retorted. "These people are murderers, and if you want evidence, just remember what's inside that building."

"He's right…" a tortured voice called out from a nearby cage. "Tatsumi… look… it's me…"

"I-Ieyasu?" The boy Tatsumi whispered, in recognition of the other boy.

This boy was only half-naked. He wore pants covered in blood, and was barefoot. His eyes spoke of suffering, and his hair was held up by his faded, dirty headband. Worst of all though were the angry, red splotches that plagued his skin, a clear indication of sickness.

"That girl invited Sayo and me to her home. And after we ate, we lost consciousness… And when we came to, we were here…" He paused, and shouted, "Th-That girl tortured Sayo to death!" He started crying, his body falling to the floor as his grips on the bars weakened.

"What's so wrong with that!" The girl screamed back, still in pain. "You're all worthless hicks from the countryside…" she gasped in pain, "The same as cattle! I should be able to do whatever I want to do to worthless shits like you… Gah!"

"A family of sadists, disguised as nothing more than good samaritans." the blonde girl said with disgust.

Blood roared in Shirou's head now. He couldn't hear anymore of her ranting as his fists clenched. He was going to execute her himself, until he saw Akame raising her sword.

"Sorry for getting in your way earlier." The blonde apologized.

"Eliminate." Akame said single mindedly.

"Wait." Tatsumi said, walking towards the girl.

The blonde hesitated. "Don't tell me.. you still want to defend her?" she asked warily.

They thought that he still wanted to protect her, that he forgave her for all the crimes she committed. Those determined eyes, and slow steps spoke of a resolve. Tatsumi gritted his teeth, and both of the assassins prepared to fight him again.

Shirou knew better though. No one would ever be that benevolent. Not even him.

"No…" Tatsumi responded, gripping the hilt of his sword.

"I'll kill her myself!" he shouted, driving his sword into the noble girl's skull.

He then stood up, his sword covered in the blood and brains of the girl, looking at the husk he created.

"Hah, that's Tatsumi for you…" said Ieyasu. "That felt great!" he said, smiling on the floor of the cage. Suddenly, he started coughing up a huge amount of blood, as pain wracked his body.

"Ieyasu!" Tatsumi shouted, running back to the boy. He then found the keys on one of the shelves of the building, fumbling until he found the right one, and opened the cage. He picked up Ieyasu and brought him out of the cage. He then laid him on the floor of the building, supporting his head with his arm.

"Ieyasu…" Tatsumi said, his voice filled with despair.

"It's the final stages of Lubora." Akame explained. "The mother of the house enjoyed drugging her victims, and she wrote about it in her diaries."

Shirou stepped near Ieyasu, the traced dagger of Hippocrates in his hand.

"Oi, what are you doing!" Tatsumi protested, grabbing his arm.

"This dagger is able to cure and heal those who are pierced by it." Shirou stated, gaze never wavering from Tatsumi.

He knelt down, and gently pierced Ieyasu in the arm. Waiting for its effects, but not seeing any results, Shirou stood up with sorrow in his eyes.

"I was not able to cure him, but it will ease his passing." Shirou said sadly. "Speak to him before he passes away."

Tatsumi held Ieyasu again, one last time.

"Tatsumi… Sayo, she never gave into that bitch…" Ieyasu whispered smiling. "Even to the very end, she was so fucking cool…" He closed his eyes and smiled, fist raised in the air.

"So Master Ieyasu has to have… a cool end…" Ieyasu spoke, and then his arm fell.

Tatsumi knew, without a doubt, that he was now alone, without his two best friends.

"It seemed that he had kept himself alive through will alone." Akame observed.

Shirou looked on sadly. _Just one more I wasn't able to save, like Ilya…_

Tatsumi wanted to scream, but he couldn't. All he felt was that great sadness.

"…What the hell is going on in the capital?" he asked, still holding onto what used to be his best friend.

Akame turned away in respectful silence. "Let's go." She said to the blonde.

Akame turned around, prepared to leave until…

"Wait, why don't we bring these two with us?" asked the blonde.

"Wait, what?" Shirou asked, confused.

The lion girl used her right hand to grab Shirou, slinging him over her shoulder. She then used her left hand to drag Tatsumi by the collar.

"Oi, what are you doing!" "Let me go, damn it!" "Put me down, lion woman!"

"Our secret base is always short-handed, so we need extra people to help us out! These two look capable, I'm sure they'll be useful somehow!" sang the blonde girl happily.

"Oi, I still need to dig a grave for those two!" Tatsumi yelled, struggling.

"Oh, I'll bring their bodies to our secret base later, so don't worry!" she reassured Tatsumi.

"Huh?" Tatsumi said dumbly. Then, remembering she was still dragging him, he shouted, "Let go of me!"

Akame and the lion girl jumped onto the roof of the mansion, the blonde slinging Tatsumi over her shoulder as well, where 3 others figures stood, suspended on wires. One was a short, petite girl with long, pink twin-tails in a pink and white dress. Another was a boy with short green hair, with red goggles and a fur-hooded green jacket. The final member was a tall and ominous looking knight in white armor, who carried a spear over his back.

"You're late! What were you doing?!" demanded the pink girl. "…And what's with those two things you have slung over your shoulders?"

"They're our new friends!" replied the blonde.

"What?" "Huh?"

The lion girl than dropped them on the roof.

"Uwaah… Ouch!" they both cried, rubbing their heads.

"You guys are now part of us!" the blonde girl said, her and Akame joining the other three people.

"Congratulations, welcome to Night Raid!" she said, sounding extremely bubbly with joy.

Shirou gave up and accepted it for what it was. Tatsumi however was more indignant.

"Why is this happening?!" he demanded to know.

"Give up. Once she's made up her mind, Leone won't give up" Akame informed Tatsumi.

Leone patted Akame's head. "As expected, you know me so well…" she praised.

"Bulatcchi, carry them please!" she asked the white knight.

Shirou took a step away from the knight. "It's okay, I'll go with you, and I can travel by myself."

Bulat nodded once in acknowledgement, and picked up Tatsumi alone.

"Let go of me, I don't have any intention of becoming an assassin!" Tatsumi whined, struggling within the man's grip.

"It'll be okay…" Bulat said. "I promise it will get better."

Shirou rubbed his eyes and blinked. He did just imagine that distinctly romantic atmosphere between Tatsumi and the knight, right?

"What will?" Tatsumi asked looking nervous, and a little bit creeped-out. He felt a chill. He definitely felt a chill.

"Mission complete." Akame interrupted, and Night Raid jumped, followed by Shirou.

As they left the mansion's property, Tatsumi screamed, "What's up with this turn of events?!"

* * *

Running through the trees alongside Night Raid, Shirou took a glance at the moon. The big, glowing sphere in the sky reminded him of home, and as a result reminded him of Rin and Saber.

He knew that Rin was probably equal parts angry and sad, and it was a toss-up to see whether or not she would cry or kill him if he ever managed to find his way back. Probably both. He wondered if even now she was trying to slash open new dimensional rifts in her efforts to find him. He hoped she wasn't careless enough to keep releasing more creatures on his property.

Saber was probably as calm as ever. He hoped Saber would be able to calm Rin down. Actually, he thought with a shudder, he hoped that she would forgive him for that trick he pulled with Bakuya. It was spur of the moment, and he didn't have much time to think of anything different, but he still had misgivings about that particular stunt. Saber could have been really hurt, and he only was able to pull it off thanks to her almost precognitive abilities and a bit of luck on his part.

He didn't know what he would get into here in this new world, but he knew that the people he seemed to have joined up with are good people. Sure, there was Akame, who mechanically decided to kill everything that obstructed her from her objective, that Leone who seemed to be a thief Tatsumi recognized, the pink girl who called him a thing so casually, and the knight Bulat who hit on Tatsumi…

He was starting to think that he joined up with the wrong people.

But even so, he could sense that these people were good people, even if their actions indicated otherwise. At the very least, they managed to assassinate that girl and her family who committed all of those crimes, so maybe they had a moral code, similar to his dad?

He laughed just a little. Maybe they had more in common than he had thought. Regardless, he had no idea what to do now in this world, so he might as well join up with their group they call Night Raid. Maybe they only accepted jobs from good people? Or was it another corrupted noble who sent them out to kill those people? At the very least, he knew they were heading back to their base.

He hoped they had a good kitchen. He really needed to cook.

* * *

Author's Notes: Hello! I know that many people will probably skip over this part, but I still felt that this was necessary in order to explain about the story. This is my first fan fiction, and I hope that I receive a lot of constructive criticism from you guys in the reviews in order to further improve the story. In case you couldn't tell, I based this story on the UBW Good End of Fate/stay night. I really loved how awesome Shirou is in UBW, and I decided on the good end because it was the best way to keep Saber in the game. Saber is my waifu, and Rin is a close second. It really, _really_ sucks how Ilya was killed in UBW though. You may hate, but I won't change my opinion. Regardless, they should both be playing a very minor role in the story, though should I decide it, I may bring them into the story much later in the game.

One thing people may protest is that Rin is able to open up a portal with the Jeweled Sword. According to the wiki, it can only create a small opening, so the size of opening Rin made should be impossible, right? Also, the fact is that she managed to open up an parallel dimension when she should have only been able to draw in the prana from the rip. My explanation with that is that In the two years under Zelretch's tutelage, Rin managed to only somewhat master some of the Kaleidoscope. I thought it would make sense if she had manage to make use of the sword in tandem with the knowledge of the Kaleidoscope, she would be able to accomplish what I described in the story. Plus, I decided that instead of Zelretch being a jerk and throwing Shirou into an alternate dimension, Shirou would jump in himself in order to save someone. Heck, can't always have Zelretch be an ass to Shirou.

Did I mention that I'll break canon? I probably will. It's bound to happen.

I'm sorry to those who didn't like the descriptions in the chapter, but it is Akame ga Kiru. It was going to be gory from the get-go. Also, some of you may wonder why I made Shirou cut the sadist's legs off so violently. One reason is because of Shirou's hate for people with an utter lack of regard for human life (bar Ilya). I mean, look at Kotomine Kirei. Shirou stabbed him with Azoth, then punched the dagger further into his body, before detonating the magical energy causing Kirei's mid-section to blow up in the Fate route. Yeah, Shirou can do those kinds of things if he seriously wants to. My other reason was because I hated that bitch myself. Sayo and Ieyasu were shown so little, yet somehow it still felt painful when it showed them dead. Yeah, she had it coming.

So, like I said, I hope that you guys can give me a lot of advice when it comes to this sort of thing. I'll take the positive and negative reviews in stride, though flaming will be ignored. Please take care of me! And look forward to the next chapter!


	2. Chapter 2: Welcome to Night Raid!

**Chapter 2: Welcome to Night Raid!**

Shirou was grumpy.

Soon after they got to the base, they were immediately told to sleep. Shirou resolved that he might as well obey, and passed out soon on the bed he was given. The next morning though, he woke up and took a shower, and dressed up in a simple white shirt and black pants. He then set out immediately to find the kitchen. He got lost, and after around an hour, managed to find Leone, who took him to the dining area, where someone already prepared food. So he didn't need to cook. At least the food was pretty good; he wondered who had made it.

After breakfast, Shirou was resolved to find out who cooked the meal when Tatsumi appeared before him. "Hey, Shirou, could you give me a hand with something?" Tatsumi asked.

"Sure, what do you need help with?"

* * *

The area where Tatsumi buried his two friends in was beautiful. Located on a cliff, it allowed a great view of the vast blue sky and below the cliff one could see the vast expanse of lush green forest that surrounded the hideout of Night Raid. Facing towards the edge of the cliff, he sat at the graves he had completed. It was nothing more than a couple of large stones resting on top of each other at the head of their graves and a bouquet of roses, but one could see than it was done carefully and tenderly.

Behind him stood Shirou, leaning to the side of the path which they had taken from the Night Raid base. Shirou had helped him with digging the graves for his friends, but he let Tatsumi be the one to carefully lower his friends in the holes. He couldn't help noticing how similar it looked to the grave he had made for Ilya, after Gilgamesh killed both her and Hercules.

* * *

_Facing the grave he dug for Ilya, Shirou cried and paid his respects. Then he started heading towards the edge of the Einzbern estate, planning to go home. Even though the day was clearly beautiful, with sunlight filtering through the trees and lush greenery all around him in the forest, Shirou could find no joy in the beautiful sight. As he approached the edge of the forest, he saw Rin nearby. "Shirou…" she started, and then stopped, noticing his eyes, before continuing. "We did everything we could. I know how you feel; I was going to jump in myself if you hadn't. To think that a child, even if she was a Master, would end up in such a way…" Rin finished. "Come on, let's go home." She urged him._

_Shirou didn't reply to her. His grief was still far too evident. Watching as Gilgamesh ripped her heart out was sickening, but more so was the fact he couldn't do anything to stop the monster. He promised himself that he would grow stronger, and together with Rin, he started back towards his residence._

* * *

Shirou sighed, a great weight resting on his heart as he recounted the tragedy. He knew deep down that there was no way he would've beaten Gilgamesh at that point, he was lucky to have even made it out with his life. But there was no denying that he was present at the time, and he had ultimately let Ilya die.

Tatsumi sat down, with both graves in front of him. He closed his eyes, and felt a small breeze brush past his face. It was a day just like this when had first left the village together with Ieyasu and Sayo. He remembered how excited they all were when they first set out.

* * *

"_We three swear that when we all die, we'll all die together!" Sayo declared._

"_Yeah… We'll succeed in the capital and earn money!" Ieyasu shouted excitedly._

"_We're going to save our village!" Tatsumi promised._

* * *

… _We said that stuff. And now, I'm alone. _Tatsumi thought despondently.

As they grieved for the deceased, Leone walked down the path and joined them. Shirou was the first to notice her, and as he started to acknowledge her, Leone shook her head and shushed him with a mischievous smile on her face.

Tatsumi, who still did not notice her, noticed _something_ when he felt two very soft orbs on the top of his head. Immediately blushing, he escaped from Leone's affections and ran near the edge of the cliff, yelling, "What are you doing so suddenly!"

Ignoring him, Leone asked, "Have you guys decided to join Night Raid yet?"

Shirou shook his head. "I'm still not quite sure about what I want to do. I do want to talk to your leader before I even think about joining, though."

"Fair enough, it seems like a reasonable thing to do." She nodded approvingly. "You'll probably see our boss later in the day when we give you the tour. If you're lucky, you might even be shown around by a beautiful woman like me!" She put her palm on top of Shirou's head, and put his head on her chest.

Shirou decided to ignore her actions. He didn't want to be unfaithful to Rin, and he knew from his experiences when he was being teased. Leone looked slightly disappointed that he didn't start blushing, and let him go soon after she grabbed him.

"I told you, I still don't want to become an assassin!" Tatsumi protested.

Leone smirked, before shoving Tatsumi's face right next to her developed chest with her arm.

"Even though you have such a great talent for killing?" She asked, enjoying how he was getting flustered.

Tatsumi looked away. "It's not talent that's the issue. It's the killing part I'm concerned with."

She smiled at him, before putting him in a headlock and dragging him along the road.

"Well then, let's go back to our hideout! I'll introduce you guys to all of our members!"

"Gah! My neck…" Tatsumi whined while looking at Shirou for help.

"By the way, our base is ten kilometers north of the capital…"

"Why are you even telling us that?!"

Shirou shrugged and followed Leone. He wasn't really sure what to do in situations like this.

* * *

As they walked through the forest pathway, they finally came across Night Raid's base. The building was positioned underneath a mountain, in a sort of carved out space with a rock covering; in fact, it looked highly unlikely that the jutted out rock on the top would be able to support itself without the building underneath it. The main building was gigantic, and had many windows facing out from the front. It seemed like a very defendable structure, as enemies could only attack en masse by the front of the building. He hoped they did have an emergency exit out the back of the mountain however.

Entering the building, they came out to the main meeting hall. In the room sat a woman with chest-long purple hair. She wore a purple dress, the middle of said dress having an opening showing a bit of cleavage. She also had a purple hair accessory. She even had purple fingered gloves on her hand, which looked very similar in design compared to the aristocratic gloves of the female nobles in the Clock Tower. Over all, she seemed to have a very noble bearing, but Shirou hoped she didn't know act like a noble of the Clock Tower as well.

"Hello, Scheele!" Leone greeted as she looked up. "Mind helping me convincing these two to join up with us?" she asked.

"Ara? You guys still aren't sure about joining?" she asked.

"That's right!" Leone confirmed. "Mind giving them some words of encouragement?"

"Hmm…" Sheele thought. "Now that you know the location of our base, if you don't join us, you'll be killed." She stated ominously.

_Uwaah… Some encouragement_, Tatsumi and Shirou both thought.

"You should consider this very seriously." Sheele said, returning to her book.

Shirou took a look at the book she was, and was a little amused at the title. "One Hundred Ways to Cure Being an Airhead." He wondered if she was actually an airhead, or if she was just trying to give off the feel of one.

Tatsumi just wondered if everyone in the Night Raid team was weird.

"Ahhh! Wait a second, Leone. Why are you letting _them_ into the hideout?!" Someone shouted.

Shirou Tatsumi and Leone turned to see the pink haired girl from the other night pointing a finger at them.

"They're our new members, so why not?" Leone shot back.

"But I haven't approved of them yet…" the girl countered, examining Shirou and Tatsumi.

After some deliberation, she finally declared her verdict.

"Fail! And fail!"

Shirou could feel his eye twitch a little. Was she being serious?

"You don't seem like you'd be able to fight with us professionals at all…" she turned and sniffed. "…Based on your faces." She said, looking back and smirking.

Yup, Shirou definitely felt another twitch.

"What did you say, yooouuu…!" Tatsumi growled.

"Don't take it seriously. Mine treats everyone this way." Leone comforted.

"Humph!" Mine turned and stuck her nose up in the air.

* * *

"The training grounds here are a good place to relieve stress." Leone explained as she led them into a clear area near a dojo. Shirou took a moment to look around the training area. Lots of space was reserved for training, and the dojo looked exactly like the one at his house.

"And over there, the one who looks like he reeks of sweat…"

"OOORRRAAAH!" A man covered in sweat roars as he swings around a giant stick skillfully in the clearing.

"That's Bulat." Leone finished.

Bulat looked like a very tall man. Training half-naked, the group could see his excellent muscles from the waist up. He wore white pants with black boots, and Shirou could see how sweaty the pants were even from a good distance. He was also interested to note that the man had a black pompadour, something Shirou found pretty iconic. He looked very much like a stereotypical Yakuza, but without the mean look on his face.

Tatsumi watched as Bulat spun the wooden weapon around his body. He was impressed at how the man's swings kicked up dust from the ground, and how the weapon continuously hummed as he whirled it in the air. _Amazing…_, he thought. _What great technique!_

Shirou was somewhat less than impressed than Tatsumi when he looked at Bulat. Sure, the man did seem pretty good, but after facing Lancer in the Holy Grail War he honestly just didn't think anybody else was really that impressive in wielding a spear. In fact, most of the Servants from the Holy Grail War made others look significantly subpar, including himself.

As Bulat finished his work out, he noticed the three standing nearby watching him. He turned and started walking, raising his hand in greeting.

"Yo! You guys are the kids from the other day right?" Bulat asked.

"You know who we are?" Tatsumi asked, puzzled.

"Huh? Ah, this is your first time seeing me this way…" Bulat said. "I'm the guy who was covered in armor."

"Um… Oh!" Tatsumi exclaimed in recognition.

Shirou took a look at Bulat and compared him to the knight in armor on the roof before. They seemed to be of the same height, and he did see a spear on the knight's back.

"I'm Bulat. Nice to meet you both." He introduced himself, holding out both his fists.

Shirou and Tatsumi were puzzled at first, but they both realized what he was asking for and they touched fists.

"Likewise." "Me too."

"By the way, he's gay." Leone noted when they touched fists.

Tatsumi pulled back his arm quickly. Shirou did the same.

"Oi, oi. I don't want them to get the wrong impression." Bulat said, smiling. Suddenly, an image began appearing around Bulat, as his face was flushed.

Shirou blinked. "Tatsumi, did you see those roses around him?" he asked.

Tatsumi was too busy being shocked at the fact that Bulat did not disprove Leone's claims to actually reply to Shirou.

* * *

Over near the baths, Leone spied a figure in green lying near the bushes. Shushing Tatsumi and Shirou, she crept around until they were directly behind him, without him noticing.

Shirou thought it was a pretty big failing for an assassin to not notice three presences directly behind him, but even more so when he heard the boy speak.

"It's almost time for Miss Leone's bath… I don't care about the danger as long as I can see her breasts!" he crowed.

"Pervert." Shirou muttered. He had no doubt that if Rin were here, she'd hit him with Gandr.

As it was, he got a different kind of divine justice.

"Oh, how about if I break two fingers?" Leone deadpanned behind him.

*CRACK* "AHHHHH!" he screamed, falling to the ground. Leone put her foot on his back.

"You never learn Lubbock…" Leone sighed at him.

"Damn it! I can still make it…" Lubbock moaned, reaching for the bathes as if it was his savior.

"Then your arm's next." She threatened, straightening the arm to easily break the joint.

_S-scary… _Tatsumi shuddered as he watched. Shirou thought that too, but he looked a lot less unnerved than Tatsumi. He got his share of "abusive female" from Rin, but even she never truly broke any bones of his. Then again, she did hit him with several Gandr bullets, so maybe it was just a new branch of violence.

"That aside, this idiot's Lubbock." She stated.

"Aaaah… Owww…" Lubbock moaned piteously.

* * *

The sun turned a red-orange as it slowly started falling. The group was walking along the pebbly white and grey banks of a river, the river also orange due to its reflection of the sun. By now, both Shirou and Tatsumi were becoming weary after meeting all the strange members of Night Raid.

"Lessee… next is..." Leone paused from speaking, thinking.

"Isn't it over yet…?" Tatsumi complained.

"Well," Leone said giggling, "next up is a pretty lady, so you might as well look forward to it."

"Hai, hai." Shirou and Tatsumi chorused tiredly.

"See look, there's Akame!" Leone pointed, excited.

Shirou almost did a double take. The girl was sitting by a fire, roasting a weird bird over a fire. That would not have been that unusual, well, it still would've been pretty unusual to Shirou, but the weird bird, roasting spit and the fire were all huge. And, to be honest, it smelled pretty good.

"Isn't she cute?" Leone asked them, smiling. Shirou was pretty sure she was making fun of them again.

Akame turned slightly to look at them as she ate a piece of the bird.

"How…?" Tatsumi stuttered. Shirou had to agree. That bird looked gross, but it smelled good.

"Is she eating an evil-bird?" Tatsumi asked.

_What's an evil-bird?_ Shirou wondered. _And, does it taste good? It smells good so far._

"She killed it alone?" Tatsumi continued to ask.

_Does it taste like chicken?_ Shirou continued to think, oblivious to Tatsumi's question.

"Hey, what's an evil-bird?" Shirou asked. He figured that if it tasted good enough, he'd bring some of the meat back home. And if it tasted exceptionally well, maybe he would get a breeding program set up at the Clock Tower. Nobles did like their food after all.

Tatsumi and Leone looked at him like he said something completely nonsensical. He guessed it was pretty common knowledge to the locals in this world.

"It's a Danger Beast." Leone said, turning back to Tatsumi. Shirou was about to ask what he had assumed to be an equally stupid question to this worlds inhabitants again before he heard the next sentence.

"Despite what she looks like, Akame originally grew up in the wild." Leone informed Tatsumi.

Shirou froze at that statement. _So, Akame raised herself in the wilderness? That's kind of sad. _Shirou thought.

Deciding to throw their attention off her, Akame took a piece of meat off the bird.

"You should also eat some Leone." She said, tossing the piece of meat.

"Ah, thank you!" Leone said as she caught the meet.

Akame looked deeply at Shirou and Tatsumi. Tatsumi and Shirou stared back.

"Did you decide to join Night Raid yet?" Akame asked.

Tatsumi stiffened, before he said, "Not yet."

"Then I can't give you this piece of meat." Akame stated.

_I don't care_. Tatsumi thought, with making a face. _She's already tried to kill me before… I really don't get her!_

Akame turned to Shirou, her eyes expressing the same question she had Tatsumi answer.

_As much as I want to taste that bird…_ "No, not yet. I already told Leone that I won't join until I talk with your boss in order to clarify some things." He answered.

"Boss is on the other side." Akame told them while still munching on the bird. She then pointed at the fire.

"The boss is back?" Leone asked, and Akame nodded.

Leone walked around until she saw the person in question. "Hey boss!" she greeted.

The boss was a woman with fairly short silver hair, which kind of reminded Shirou of Archer. She had purple eyes, or maybe just a purple eye, as her right eye had an eye-patch over it. She wore a black suit, with the neck opening stretching down to the middle of her chest in a V-neck. As a result, it showed a generous amount of cleavage. Her right arm seemed to be mechanical, so she probably lost hers a long time ago.

"Yo." The boss greeted her back.

"So boss," Leone started, looking a little bit like an excited puppy, "Didya bring back any presents?"

"Before that…" the boss said, and Leone paled slightly.

"Three days ago, it seems you exceeded the time limit for a job." The boss said, twitching her mechanical right arm. Shirou stared at that arm for a little bit, he was curious.

"Trace, on." He whispered, using Structural Analysis on the arm.

Tatsumi looked at him. The phrase seemed really familiar, and then he realized that phrase was what Shirou said when looking at Akame's weapon, before revealing what the weapon did. He was curious about why Shirou was staring at the boss's mechanical arm so hard, though.

"Oh, crap…" Leone said before she tried to flee.

Shirou, having examined the arm before it was used, expected what was coming next. Leone barely made 20 feet before the hand shot out and grabbed her collar.

"What!" Tatsumi yelled as the hand shot past his face at an extremely fast pace. Within milliseconds, it grabbed Leone, pulled her off her feet and start dragging her back to the boss.

"Aiieee!" Leone screamed as she was dragged by the arm. Shirou whistled; that arm seemed pretty nifty.

"It isn't good to enjoy fighting your enemies so much… You should fix that habit." The boss chastised Leone as she slowly reeled Leone back, the arm making an ominous creaking sound.

"I get it, so please stop reeling me in!" Leone pleaded. The boss smiled, and released her grip on Leone. Leone sprang up immediately, perky as ever, so Shirou assumed that it probably happened often.

"So, who are these two gentlemen?" She asked.

"Ah, boss! The brown-haired one is Tatsumi, and the red-haired one is Shirou!" Leone said proudly. "They're our new recruits!"

"Oh, really? Are they capable? Do they have any talent?" the boss inquired, scrutinizing them closely. Shirou shivered, her gaze reminded him of that time he met the Queen of the Clock Tower, Barthomeloi Lorelei. She had sized him up too, and deemed him to be a bug completely underneath her.

"Um!" Leone nodded. "Tatsumi managed to survive a hit from Akame by shielding himself with a wooden statue!"

"It wasn't anything special…" Tatsumi muttered. He of all people knew how close he came to death, and how lucky he had been to keep that statue "close to his heart."

"In addition," Leone continued, "When he found out the atrocities of the 'nobles'…" Leone spat in disgust. "He killed one of them swiftly and without hesitation, like a true killer!"

Tatsumi's hands clenched. Shirou looked at him in concern. No doubt Tatsumi was recalling how his friends had their lives ended in that place. He was so full of rage that killing that girl didn't mean anything to him. Shirou knew that even though the circumstances would've led anyone to do the same thing, he was still ashamed at the fact he had no hesitation in taking a life.

Shirou punched his arm lightly in a gesture of friendship. Tatsumi stopped clenching his arm and looked Shirou in the face, gratitude etched in his features. He mouthed his thanks to Shirou, before noticing the boss was watching them. She had an amused smile on her face.

The boss was smiling as she picked up the subtle friendship that they exhibited in front of her. It seemed like Shirou and Tatsumi have already built up a nice rapport with each other. If both of them were able to do even half of that with the other members, it would greatly benefit her. After all, a sense of camaraderie is fundamental in keeping a close team cohesive.

"Ah, but Shirou was truly amazing!" Leone exclaimed. "He was able to face off against Akame with these black and white swords…"

"Kanshou and Bakuya." Shirou interrupted. "The black one is Kanshou, and the white one is Bakuya."

"Oh, okay." Leone blinked, startled at his interruption. She guessed that he really liked those swords. Wait… her eyes opened up widely in realization.

"Oi, Shirou? Where are your swords?" She asked inquisitively.

Tatsumi widened his eyes open in surprise as well. He glanced at Shirou, and saw that he really didn't have his swords on him.

_Crap!_ Shirou almost face-palmed. He didn't want anybody in this world to know of his capabilities yet, and now suddenly a major flaw appeared. Like _why he wasn't carrying swords on his freaking person!_

"What happened to his swords?" the boss asked, concerned.

"When one of our targets tried to escape, he threw Kanshou and Bakuya at her legs. It managed to take off one of her legs and lamed the other one, but he never picked them up after that."

"Hmm…" The boss mumbled thinking. "That would just show a bit of clumsiness or stupidity on his part, if he truly left them behind…" She arched her eyebrow as she looked at him again. "Shirou, where are your sheathes? A person should not carry around a sword without a sheath, so where are yours? Unless you left them behind also, which is highly irregular since a sheath is always strapped onto the person…"

Damn it. He might have been able to explain it away if she hadn't pointed that part out, but now that really does make the question viable in their eyes.

"Um… Uh…" He was out of time. He had to say something, anything!

"I left them at home?" he said smiling weakly.

Akame stared at him, Leone face palmed, Tatsumi fell over, and the boss just sighed.

Akame took slow bites of her meat while staring at Shirou.

"That was terrible." Leone whispered.

"You left your sheathes at home…" Tatsumi deadpanned.

The boss sighed. "Ah, well we better get those swords back. Don't want the soldiers to find us just because we left weapons there." She muttered loudly enough for Shirou to hear.

"Ah, don't worry; they're probably already long gone." Shirou informed her automatically. Then he realized what he just said.

Everyone stared at him for two seconds, as if he grew a second head or something.

"Shirou, swords do not just disappear." Leone lectured, as if talking to a very stupid baby. "They do not just spontaneously disperse into nothingness."

"Yeah they don't," he began, and everyone sighed in relief. "They disperse into prana." He mentally kicked himself. What was he saying?!

Now everyone stared at him as if he grew a _third_ head. "Ahaha, Shirou do you need rest?" Tatsumi asked, wondering if his friend was driven insane by being forced to join an assassination team.

"Nah, I don't need rest." Shirou reassured him. "I was just… uh… um…"

Great, he dug himself into an even bigger ditch than before. Shirou would have started banging his head against a wall, but there were no walls by the river.

"Shirou, are you not comfortable in telling us?" The boss asked.

Shirou seized the lifeline eagerly, nodding his head up and down. "Yeah, if possible, I don't want to discuss it yet."

"Then don't." the boss said. "You can talk about it when you join."

Shirou made a face. Wasn't he being forced to join in the first place?

"What do you mean, 'join'?" Shirou asked, eyes narrowed, with the faintest hint of annoyance. "Isn't the deal 'I have to join, or I die'?"

The boss stared at him. Akame continued to eat the evil-bird. Tatsumi nodded his head in agreement. Leone tried to muffle her laughter.

The boss sighed. "Akame, gather the team. I want to gather the team, and I want to hear the report on the last mission." She ordered as she put on her cloak with a flourish. "And I also want to hear about these two boys here." She said, walking back to base.

* * *

"I see," The boss said. "I understand the situation completely. Tatsumi, Shirou…" She held her mechanical arm out, palm facing up. "Will you join Night Raid?"

"Aren't we dead if we decline?" Tatsumi asked, startled there was even a choice.

Shirou knew he had a choice though. If they seemed shady, he was going to get Tatsumi and him out of here. No one in the base could probably take him head on, but 7 against 1 with a handicap might be a little bit more than he could handle. But he's gotten out of worse situations before.

As if interrupting his train of thought, the boss of Night Raid replied. "No, that won't happen."

Shirou sensed a "but."

"But we can't just let you go either. You'll have to work as a laborer in our workshop…"

"Or in the kitchen?" Shirou asked hopefully. Hey, if he was in a bad situation, why not make the best of it?

"… Yeah, or the kitchen, I guess." The boss agreed. "As long as you don't poison our food."

Shirou was pissed at first, but then he remembered that they lived in dangerous times, where doing that kind of thing was probably normal. Heck, maybe they used that method too. Still, he was still insulted.

"… At any rate, you won't die if you refuse to join, so what do you say?" The boss asked.

"I…" the whole room focused on Tatsumi. "I went to the capital in order to become a soldier. I was going to become famous and strong, earn a lot of money, and help my village which is stricken by poverty…" He took a deep breath. "But even the imperial capital is rotting!"

"The source of poverty and suffering in the countryside come from the imperial capital's rotten center." Bulat replied. "Don't you want to uproot the source of the rot," and here he flashed a smile, "As a man!"

"Bulat originally came from the imperial army," the boss explained. "However, he soon learned of the corruption and left the army, joining us instead."

"After all, our work is to eliminate the evildoers in the capital." Bulat said. "It's much better then working under those rotten people. "

"But, if you just kill off the evil, little by little," Tatsumi began. "The world won't change greatly, will it? In the end, places in remote regions like my village won't be saved by that." He finished, looking down.

"I see…" said the boss. "Then Night Raid is even more perfect for you."

Tatsumi's head snapped back up. "How come?" He asked with a note of hope in his question.

Shirou wanted to listen to this too. Saving people, or even villages, was all normal work for him, but he wanted to see how this organization would do it.

"Far to the south of the capital, there's a hideout of an anti-empirical force, called the Revolutionary Army."

"… Revolutionary Army?" Tatsumi questioned.

"The Revolutionary Army, which had started out small, has turned into a large-scale organization. Then inevitably, a unit to handle covert jobs, such as assassination and intelligence, was formed."

"That's us." She said, pointing her thumb at the insignia at her back. "Night Raid."

"Right now, we're just exterminating the capital's ticks." She explained. "But in the event that the Revolutionary Army starts moving, we'll take advantage of the confusion, and the prime minister, who is the cause of all the corruption…" Her metal fist clenched. "We will take him out ourselves!"

"… Take out… the prime minister?!" Tatsumi said in disbelief.

"That's our goal. There are others, but I'll leave them for now." The boss stated. "Although I can't say anything specific about when they'll rise to action, we've prepared a plan to win. When that time comes,"

"This country WILL CHANGE for sure!"

Tatsumi looked down again, thinking silently. "Will this new country… treat its people well?"

"Of course."

"I see." Tatsumi said, as he started trembling in admiration.

"Awesome… So the killing your doing is just taking out the trash right?!" he exclaimed excitedly. "So then you guys are like heroes!"

"Pft… AHAHAHAHA!" Everyone in the room bar Shirou and Akame started laughing at Tatsumi. Akame just stared at him.

"What? What's so funny?!" Tatsumi demanded. Then the room's atmosphere tenses to unbearable levels.

"Tatsumi…" Leone says seriously. "No matter how you dress it up, what we are doing is **murder**."

"There's no we could be heroes in doing that." Scheele added in.

"Every person here could receive judgment, and die at any moment." Bulat said quietly.

"And yet, do you regret it?" Shirou asked. Everyone in the room turned and looked at him.

"Sometimes, we do." the boss admits. "We regret when we can't save, we regret the horrors we see, and we regret that there has to killings in order to bring about peace."

"So you have taken the first steps towards being heroes." Shirou said quietly. "Regret is an important part of being a hero. Regret that there must always be someone who needs to be saved, that you must always follow your duties, and that sometimes you must put aside your own concerns for the greater good."

"Then I'd rather not be a hero." Leone argued, challenging Shirou. But he shook his head.

"But you already are." Everyone looked at him in confusion.

"Someone once told me that wishing to be a hero means that someone must always be in trouble. At first glance, it looks like a horrible statement." Shirou explains. "But if you look at the statement more closely, it also means that someone must be a hero in order to save another in suffering. So as long as there are people out there in trouble, there must be someone who can help them." He paused, and then continued.

"Remember that the people that you protect right now think of you as heroes. And when you put down scum like the other day, you protect even more people as a result. As a result, those you defeat, and their comrades, will look upon you with the greatest of animosity. You will be someone's hero, and some one's villain. Also remember that you cannot save everyone. You can only try to save those who you can. That is the course of a hero, to both save and damn. You will inevitably create gratitude and hate… But you can only move on, continuing to do what you feel you must do."

"This is the path I swore to follow. Weighing lives on a scale, I will always choose the side that is heavier. That is a decision I made a long time ago."

The whole room looked at him in amazement. They all stared at him.

"Although, you know that hero is a pretty subjective term, so it might be different in everyone's eyes. It's just my personal opinion on the matter. But I know which side to choose, who to protect, and who to defeat." Shirou shruged. Everyone still stares at him. Finally, he just decides to ask.

"…What?" he finally asked.

"Do you really believe that we qualify as heroes?" The boss asked.

"As I said, it's pretty subjective. But, as far as I know, you do it to purify a country of corruption, and I have seen evidence of your deeds." He said, smiling. "So yeah, you guys seem like heroes in my eyes."

Silence. Then all of Night Raid began to shake their heads in disbelief.

"You have a pretty weird view, Shirou." Leone said. "I mean, so to you, everything isn't black and white, but completely gray?"

Shirou rubbed the back of his head. "Err, I guess…?" He said uncertainly.

"So, if you think that we are heroes, will you join us Shirou?" The boss asked finally.

Shirou thought about it. All of these people were good people, even if slightly quirky. They seemed to have bonded to each other through working as a team through tough trials that they had encountered. They were just like him, Rin and Saber in that sense.

"Yes, I will." Shirou said, bowing.

"As for you Tatsumi?" The boss asked.

"Well…" Tatsumi began. "Will you be able to save my village?"

"Yes, if you work hard you will be able to save a hometown."

"Then of course I'll accept!" Tatsumi declared. "It's what my friends would have done, so now I have to carry on their legacy!"

"Are you sure you want to do this? You'll be unable to travel around freely you know." Mine said, informing us. "That means you won't be able to visit your village."

"It's fine." Tatsumi said, clenching his fist. "As long as everyone is able to be happy, then I don't care what cost I'll pay."

Shirou looked at him. "Are you sure you should be saying that Tatsumi? You know that you shouldn't say something like that lightly."

"It's fine, I'll even sacrifice my own life to save my village!"

_Sometimes though, your life won't be the most precious thing you'll have to sacrifice._ Shirou thought sadly.

"…Hmph." Mine said, but her eyes looked softer than before.

"It's decided then. Shirou, Tatsumi welcome to…" the boss trailed off. She was about to say something intimidating, like "The path of carnage" but thought twice of that after hearing Shirou's speech. "Welcome to Night Raid!" She finished. Yeah, that sounded much better. She held her hand up for their handshakes.

"Yes, please take care of me." Tatsumi said, shaking hands with her.

"Yes, thank you…" Shirou trailed as he remembered he didn't get her name.

"Najenda." She said, as if reading his mind.

"Yeah. Thank you, Najenda." Shirou said, pleased he got her name. He shook her hand.

Suddenly, Lubbock jerked as he felt a pull on his wires.

"Intruders!" Lubbock warned them all. "Probably 8 people, according to my wire barrier!"

"What's their location?" Najenda asked, serious.

"They're really close to the hideout!" Lubbock told Najenda.

"Is that so? They're pretty good then, to have discovered our base. They must be mercenaries from another race." Najenda inferred, lighting a cigarette.

"There's no other way." She said. "It's an emergency sortie. Don't let any of them return alive!" She ordered, as everyone in Night Raid tensed, exuding a strong killing intent.

Everyone besides Tatsumi moved immediately. Shirou decided to get to a tall vantage point to snipe any of the runners. He knew how this worked. None of them must be able to leave the area alive. To allow them to do so would compromise the safety of the base.

"Eh… Ah… Huh…?" Tatsumi said, looking around confused. "Ow!" he yelped as Najenda kick him.

"What are you spacing out for?" Najenda asked him, grinning. "It's your first battle. Go eliminate them!"

"Yes ma'am!" Tatsumi said, running to the exit.

* * *

As Tatsumi ran outside, his spotted a familiar figure running in head of him. Putting on extra speed, he caught up to Bulat.

"Bulat!" Tatsumi called. Bulat noticed him as he caught up, and flashed a smile at him.

"Yo, Tatsumi, you wanna come with me?"

"Yeah, if it's ok!"

"Alright then, but call me Aniki or Handsome then!"

Tatsumi decided to pick the first option. "Hai, Aniki!"

"Uooh! That sounds great! As a reward, let me show you something awesome!" He shouted, stopping himself and Tatsumi.

"Stand back a bit!" He yelled. "INCURSIO!"

Bulat's armor suddenly appeared behind him, looking entirely like a demon about to possess a person. Wrapping around him, it enclosed itself around Bulat before seamlessly closing the armor, encasing Bulat in its protective shell.

"Whoooaaaah!" Tatsumi yelled, awestruck. "So coooool!"

"I know right?! This is my Teigu, Incursio!"

"Teigu? I don't really get it, but it's getting me pumped up!"

"So you understand the awesomeness of it then?!" Bulat says, before speaking seriously. "Alright… Tatsumi, here's your first job…"

* * *

"Ah, this'll do." Shirou said as he stood on top of a huge tree. Naturally taller than all the other trees, it also allowed him to see all of the paths that an enemy might use as an escape route. He decided that it was more beneficial to the team if he sniped runaways than chase enemies through the trees. Reinforcing his eyes, he scanned the area, looking for any escaping humans.

"Hmm…" Shirou checked again. "No runaways right now… so let me see if any of the others need help… Oh, there's Akame!" He commented to himself as he watched three of the intruders getting ready to fight her.

"Oh… oh my…" he says as he sees the intruders slaughtered.

"… I will never, EVER piss Akame off after that." he concluded.

* * *

Akame faced three of the enemy near the river. They all laughed and got ready to fight her, counting themselves lucky.

"The fact that she's here means that their hideout really is close to here, so it was worth it to search steadily…" The intruder without a hood said while laughing.

"Still, what a cute girl…" One of the hooded intruders leered.

"Looks like we can take our time and have some fun after we finish her." The other hooded intruder commanded. "Don't damage her body too…much?"

Faster than they could see, Akame stepped past the intruders. A rush of wind and a spray of blood flowed in her passing, as the mercenaries only start feeling their necks and the blood running down the gash in their throats.

"Ah-" "Huh?" The mercenaries clutched their throats.

"You guys are too relaxed in enemy territory…" Akame lectured.

"How could that…" "She's too… fast…" Both of the hooded intruders fell. The one without a hood retains his footing however.

"Shit!" The last enemy shouted, covering his throat with one hand and grabbing his sword with the other. "At least I'll take her down with… me?" He gasped in pain.

The lethal poison flowed quickly throughout his body, managing to quickly target all his vitals simultaneously. "A curse from the wound!…" He spat out. "Poison?..." He said as he fell.

*Chink* "One slash, certain kill." She told him as she sheathed Murasame.

* * *

"He's run pretty far away, I can't hit him unless I expose myself like this." Mine muttered as she steps out of the shrubbery she was hiding in, sighting the length of her rifle at the intruder running away.

Another intruder leaped up from behind Mine, swinging his sword to decapitate her. "Gotcha!" he shouted.

Mine grinned as the man behind her has given her the "pinch" she needed to fire her Teigu, while exposing his back to the over-sized scissors that eviscerated him from the back to front around the waist.

"I'm sorry." Sheele apologized as the man's halves fell to the ground.

"Thanks Sheele." Mine thanked as power from the danger she escaped fills her rifle. "Nice pinch!" she grinned fiercely, launching a beam of destruction from her Teigu to the fleeing intruder.

Before the beam hits though, Mine blinked and saw an arrow pierce the man's chest, before her beam completely obliterates the area the intruder was in, destroying his body. Then she heard the wind.

Mine and Scheele screamed as they heard the immense sound the arrow made. It was like someone made the loudest sound they could in both ears simultaneously.

Eventually, they both somewhat recovered from the horrible noise. Scheele saw Mine yelling and stamping her feet at her, and guessed that she was complaining about the noise.

"Arrgh! Who did that!" She complained, pissed off at whoever stole her target and made that high-pitched sound.

Sheele tapped her shoulder and points up. Mine followed her finger until she sees a figure in a white shirt on top of a tree. She recoiled a little, and started getting even more pissed off.

"You're kidding me right?! Where the hell did he get that huge bow, and how did the damn newbie hit the intruder from 2 kilometers off?!" She screamed, stamping her foot.

* * *

Shirou noticed the intruder running away from the area. Luckily, he was on a clear pathway, so there were no obstacles in front of him and his target.

"Trace, on." He intoned. A humongous black bow appeared in his hand, almost measuring his height. As he adjusted himself to make sure he doesn't fall from the branch he rested on, he traced something else. However, he didn't create an arrow. No, his bow was specially modified to shoot swords.

He created a streamlined black sword, modified to be less wind resistant, with thin but sharp edges streaming around it's circular core. He filled it with the lowest amount of prana, not enough to break it and cause an explosion, but enough to activate its auto-tracking ability. Then he reinforced his ear as to not immediately deafen himself after he fires. He takes a deep breath and goes through the stages of firing a bow, already knowing his shot was good before he even let go. Then he fired.

"Fly, Hrunting." He whispered, the shot already hitting the target as a sonic-boom fills the air. A sword flying at mach 10 will do that.

Then he blinked in surprise as a beam suddenly appeared, vaporizing a straight line from a single direction, destroying the area around the intruder. He snapped his head as he traced the direction of the shot, seeing Sheele tap Mine's shoulder and pointing at him. He saw Mine turn towards him, and start yelling and stamping her feet in anger.

"Crap!" He groaned. "I stole Mine's kill. And now she's gonna kill me!"

* * *

Somewhere else in the forest, Leone sat on top of a corpse, covering her ears as she hears the enormous scream from Hrunting as it shattered the sound barrier, before hearing a concussive boom directly after.

"Damn it, is Mine going nuts with her Teigu?!" she yelled, still temporarily deafened from the intense sounds from before. "I didn't know why she uses a Teigu like that with such a complicated and dangerous condition, but I sure as hell know now! She must have gotten her neck halfway chopped through to use such a powerful blast!" She shouted, ears still ringing.

She gazed at the corpse at her feet as she finally regained some of her hearing. She looked at it with contempt.

"You are so, so lucky it was me that did you in instead of Mine just now…" she muttered at the corpse. "Nothing but simple punching and brawling from me, yep…"

"After all," she continued, as talking allowed her to check how much of her hearing had recovered, "all I do is turn into a freaking animal, the king of animals out of all things, and just beat up on you, simple as that…" She worked her jaw, popping her ears.

"Ah. My hearing's back."

* * *

Underground, Lubbock had just finished capturing his foe in the web of string he made from wrapping wires around stalagmites and stalactites. Sauntering out, he sighed and face-palms as he sees the prey he captured.

"I knew the pressure on my wire was light." He complained as he walked closer. "I caught a woman."

The woman he caught only wore pieces of cloth around her chest and waist, exposing the rest of her skin. That style of clothing worked against her however, as the wires were cutting into her exposed skin easily.

"Please let me go!" she pleaded. "I'll do anything! Just please, spare me!"

Lubbock seemed to think over this for a moment, as if struggling. The woman held her breath in hope. However, when he looked back at her, mercy was the farthest thing he had on his mind.

"Nooope." He drawled, as the wires of his Teigu wrapped tighter and cut deeper into her. The women gasped in pain as the wires tightened. "I knew a guy who died because he let a pretty woman assassin like you go, and she turned around and stabbed his back afterwards. Tragic, really."

As the woman's body went slack, he dropped her on the floor, and walked away. Before he left though, he turned back and looked at her face before sighing.

"Ugh, I seriously hate my job sometimes." He complained. "And my luck with women. The only pretty ones who are ever really interested in me are the ones who only have interests to kill me."

As he turned to leave the cave again, the scream from Hrunting reverberated around the underground area, only enhanced by the echoing nature of the cave, and Lubbock fell to the ground and started crying and pleading in pain.

"Aaaagh! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he pleaded towards whatever was making that god-awful noise. "I'll never kill a pretty lady again! I didn't even want to do it, I swear! Please, someone, just stop that noise!" he wailed, running at the exit to escape the echo.

* * *

Tatsumi jumped as he was startled by the rabbit crossing the path in front of him. "Just a rabbit…" he muttered, still wary at any noise or sound that was made around him.

"Aniki told me to stay here and stop any of the intruders from escaping, but it's not like anyone will really come through here…" he sighed. What a newbie role!

As if conjuring up his wish, an enemy suddenly darted out in front of him, an intruder with an animal pelt over his head. Tatsumi immediately leapt up, preparing for battle.

"So, they even had someone station here!" the intruder roared, taking out his sword.

"I can't let you pass!" Tatsumi informed him. _Will I really be able to take the life of someone I have no animosity towards? But if I hesitate, I'm as good as dead._ He thought.

"Even though you're a boy, I won't hold back!" the intruder growled, wild killing intent leaking into the air.

Tatsumi tensed, and then sped towards the bandit, launching an Iai attack on the intruder's chest, making the intruder's blood fall like crimson rain. Just like that, the matter was settled.

"How's that…" Tatsumi whispered. "These… with Sayo… and Ieyasu… the three of us…" He raised his voice. "These are the moves we three built up!" he yelled.

"I beg of you!" The intruder pleaded. "If I die, my village-"

Tatsumi stopped, bewildered. _This guy is also fighting for his hometown?_ He hesitated._ But-_

The bandit grasped his sword and swung in a diagonal slash. "Ha-ha, you're too naïve boy!" He yelled triumphantly. "I'll have you die for my clan-"

The swing was stopped as Akame jumped on the enemy, Murasame pointed downward, lending her weight to the downward thrust and instantly killing the intruder.

"Don't waver." She said, gazing at the startled Tatsumi. "You should land the killing blow promptly."

_Without any hesitation, she…_

"Hiya!" Bulat yelled, landing near them. "The enemy came over here right?! Leave the rest to me!"

"It's already over." Akame informed him with a deadpan.

"Huh?" Bulat said.

*SCREEEEEE!* They all heard the scream from Hrunting.

"Aghhh! My ears!" Tatsumi screamed.

"What the hell is that? Another enemy attack?!" Bulat yelled.

Akame didn't say anything, but she covered her ears and crouched down on the ground, scrunching up her face at the horrible noise. It actually looked kind of cute, except for the fact nobody else really paid attention because they were looking for the source of the noise.

"Let's report this to boss immediately!" Bulat yelled, already turning back to the base.

"Hai, Aniki!" Tatsumi followed, ears still ringing.

Akame got up and moved to follow them as well.

* * *

Everyone met up later outside the base. Bulat, Akame and Tatsumi met up with the boss first, running at full speed in order to tell Najenda about the perceived threat.

"Boss, we've got a bad situation!" Bulat said first, running full speed at her. "I think we've got another enemy in the vicinity! We gotta go search it out-"

"Nah, you really don't need to worry about that." Leone said, running at them too. "I'm pretty sure that was Mine's Pumpkin. Ah, that was really, really loud though." She complained.

"You mean, Mine did that?" Bulat asked, astonished. "Can Pumpkin really make a noise that loud?"

Lubbock soon staggered back to them, still clutching his ears in pain. "Yo, did any of you hear that awful screaming?" He groaned.

"Yeah! Oi, Lubbock, did anybody else enter the area after the battle started?" Bulat asked urgently.

"No, the wires surrounding the base haven't been tripped at all."

"So it really was Pumpkin…" Bulat sighed in relief. Then his eyes widened. "Oi, how close to death do you think Mine came to in order to use something that powerful?"

"I dunno, but we'll see soon. If Mine is hurt badly, then Scheele will be carrying her back now…" Leone reasoned.

"Who would be hurt badly by those bunch of weaklings?!" someone said indignantly.

Mine and Scheele appeared from the trees. Bulat rushed at her, hugging her immediately.

"Thank goodness you're safe!" he said crying.

"Aghhh! Get off me you homo!" Mine screamed angrily, shoving Bulat off her. "More importantly, where's Shirou?! I need to find him and kill him for stealing my target-"

"Hey, everybody." Shirou said, appearing from the trees on the opposite side. Then he saw Mine. "Uh, come on Mine, let's not do anything too rash …" he pleaded. Needless to say, it was useless.

Shirou fell to the ground, arching his back and covering the back of his head, as Mine started kicking him.

"Stupid! Idiot! Moron!" Mine shouted, kicking him. "That's for stealing my target, and for making that awful, horrendous screaming noise…"

"Wait, Shirou did that?!" Everyone in the group said, staring at Shirou.

"Ow, ow, ow…" Shirou muttered as he stood up, and saw everyone staring at him. Then he felt Najenda's arm on his shoulder.

"I think you owe us an explanation Shirou." Najenda told him seriously.

Shirou nodded. As long as Mine didn't hit him again.

* * *

Author's Notes: Hey everyone! Sorry that this chapter is so much longer than the first, but to be honest, I like this one a lot more. Shirou being a badass and getting into trouble with Mine and scaring most of the members of Night Raid, it was a lot more fun to write. Anyway, I guess it's time to answer some questions…

By the way, sorry for all the horizontal line breaks. Too many scene changes.

Some people asked if Shirou will be significantly stronger in this world than in his world. The answer is both yes and no. He will be stronger as the Gaia of that world is probably somewhat more lenient as there as still dangerous beasts around, like the Earth Dragon Tatsumi slew. But since most of the more phantasmal Danger Beasts are now gone, it can be inferred that the world is heading into the Age of Humans, thus he won't be able to become that much stronger.

Others have asked if there will be Shirou x Esdeath. The short answer is no. If anything, there will only be one-sided feelings towards Shirou, but this decision is due to two reasons. One, their ideals will always be at an impasse, as Shirou believes in saving the weak while Esdeath believes in Darwinism. Additionally, Shirou's gotta stay faithful to Rin, which means NO CHEATING! Besides, I haven't even decided how he and Esdeath shall meet…

One person wondered about Hippocrates's dagger, and to be honest, I got the idea from another person's fan-fiction, although I forgot which fan-fiction I got it from. In all his time saving people, I thought it would make sense that Shirou would have a weapon that would heal people's wounds, so although it won't help people who'll die later in the story *SPOILERS!*, it will help to bring back those with serious injuries. And for reference, the dagger is more like a really big scalpel that Hippocrates had for surgeries. I wouldn't say that's it's on the levels of Avalon's healing, but it will be able to provide first aid on others. Plus, it also helped Shirou to establish an even greater relationship with Tatsumi, after the attempt to heal Ieyasu.

As for Avalon, yes it will be providing strong regeneration abilities to Shirou, and no, it won't be as powerful as Fate/stay night. It will still work because Shirou has a connection with Rin, who has a connection to Saber, and that indirect bond will still allow Avalon to work, although not as powerfully. Will he be able to activate it's bounded field ability? No. That requires the presence of Saber nearby, and NO, I'm not going to bring them into the Akame ga Kiru world.

Some people may wonder why they didn't immediately lose their eardrums when Shirou fires Hrunting. That's because people in anime are always insanely tougher than regular people in real life. One person also pointed out the noble's mild reaction to her legs being cut. Well, I didn't want to have more cursing on her part and be blamed for exaggerating.

Somebody asked if Shirou would be able to use runes and use unarmed skills. My response is, why would he need those when he's specialized only with swords, and is able to create swords almost instantly in his hands and in the air? I do realize that they are asking that because it appeared in In Flight, but I really didn't want to put that in the story. Leave the magic stuff to Rin.

One person mentioned how Shirou is able to copy Murasame. He's not going to use it. Why do that if you can just project Gae Bolg, which insures a certain hit if not death? He won't abuse Gae Bolg however, and he won't use Murasame to kill people either. That's what I'm planning to do. However, plans do change, so let's see what happens from here on.

The final question the people had was if Shirou was going to be OP. And, err, yes and no? I'm planning for him to be as strong or even slightly weaker than Esdeath. You take it for what it is. Although if anything, I'm sure that Esdeath's time-stop skill will help her win a battle with Shirou.

Now, one of my main issues will be how to hide Shirou's appearance when he fights the Jaegers. One of my other problems is inferring the reactions of Night Raid towards Shirou's insane fighting skills. I think that's the worst part for me. Having Shirou interfere in the story is easy enough, but not actualizing believable and character-orientated reactions to these instances.

Until the next chapter then. See ya!

Edit:

I fixed all the present tense in this chapter, sorry. I was talking while I was writing, and that distracted me, disturbing my writing. Glad to see that somebody caught that for me, thanks Shintouyu.

Also, I took out the part with the erections with the bandits. While I was writing that part, I was talking with a friend, and like all teenage boys, we were making dick jokes. I'm sorry to everyone who was offended by that. Thanks for pointing that out, formerlyarandomreviewer.

Now, I've fixed some of the cursing that Shirou's done to fit his character more from Fate/stay night. It's not exactly done like Fate/stay night, as Shirou actually has some basic human emotions in this story, but it's less over the top than before. I can't give your name, since you reviewed as a guest, but thanks anyways. I didn't realize I was taking too much inspiration from Hill of Swords and In Flight.


	3. Chapter 3: First Job, First Blood

**Chapter Three: First Job, First Blood**

"So, how did you create such a loud sound anyway?" Najenda asked Shirou.

Everybody from Night Raid gathered around him, eager to hear his explanation. As expected, Mine was still furious with him, but she had calmed down after she had her session of abuse. The rest of Night Raid looked at him accusingly, rubbing their ears as they remember the noise Hrunting made.

"I'm telling you, he did it with a gigantic bow!" Mine said insistently. "He shot this weird black arrow at my target with that gigantic bow of his, and it was the thing that stole my kill!"

"Oh yeah? Well, where's his bow then?" Tatsumi challenged Mine.

"I don't know! All I know is that he had one, and he stole my target!" She pouted childishly. "Sheele saw it, didn't you Scheele?" she asked, looking for support.

"Yes, Shirou did have a big bow." She said, confirming Mine's statement. "It was this big…" she stated, stretching her arms out.

"Well, the bow dissipated after I used it, that's why it isn't here anymore." Shirou stated, before Tatsumi could argue with Mine anymore.

"You said something like that about your swords too." Najenda pointed out. "Care to elaborate?"

"Well, you see, I projected Kanshou and Bakuya and bow out of the od in my body, using an advanced form of Projection that I've created called Tracing…" Shirou trailed off, looking at the Night Raid members. All of the girls, especially Scheele, looked like their brains had overloaded. He could almost imagine the smoke pouring out of their ears. All of the men were rubbing their temples but also looked severely confused. Najenda herself was giving him a very confused look unbefitting of her usual serious appearance. Shirou sighed, learning that they were unfamiliar of the terms that he himself knew and heard on a daily basis, and sought to explain it in terms that they would be able to understand.

"Basically, I have this special energy in my body that I call od, which is the internal type of energy called prana, the external type being called mana…" Nope, still too complicated.

"I have a special type of energy inside my body, which I use on certain skills of mine." Shirou explained, finally seeing some comprehending faces. Good. "These skills all serve various purposes but ultimately aid me with my greatest skill, called Tracing. The first of these skills is called Structural Analysis. Using my energy, I am able to fully examine an object as if it were a blueprint, leading me to discover their materials, abilities and even history, which is vital for Tracing."

"Ah, so that's how you figured out Akame's weapon!" Tatsumi exclaimed. "I was wondering how you discovered the name of Akame's sword, and its abilities."

"What?! Is this true, Akame?" Najenda asked Akame, astonished. When Akame nodded her head, Najenda looked at Shirou in surprise, and with new-found respect. "Interesting, an ability that allows one to figure out the abilities of even Teigu…" she murmured.

"One of my other abilities is called Reinforcement. Its purpose is the same as its name, to reinforce an object in a certain aspect of it. For example," he says, snatching Najenda's lighter. "If I use Reinforcement on this lighter…"

"Trace on…" He intoned, filling the lighter with his od.

_Begin synchronization._

_Analyzing composite materials._

_Reinforcing composite materials_

_All processes complete._

"Trace off."

He then flicked the cap of the lighter and activated it. The resulting flame was gigantic, almost as great as a campfire. Everyone gasped. He then shut it off, and handed it back to Najenda, who's hand began shaking, as if it would blow up.

"It could be used like that. If I used it on a sword, it's sharpness would increase. If I tried a shield, than the defense would go up." He explained. "It's a very basic and useful ability. In general, I use it on my own body to increase my body's durability and strength, among other things, such as sight and hearing."

"Oi, Shirou?" Tatsumi asked after Shirou gave back the lighter. "Why do you keep saying 'Trace on' every time you do something?"

"That's because it activates the energy inside me. It's what I use to start up my abilities, sort of like a button or a switch. Essentially it's hypnotism." Shirou explained, happy someone pointed that out. "But if you want, call it a prayer of success." He said, smiling a bit before turning serious again.

"My next ability is Alteration. Although it's not an ability that I can use especially well," he said, making a face, "I can use it on my weapons in order to modify them into arrows. That," he says while looking at Mine and the rest, "is what I shot at the target that made such an ear-splitting noise."

"One of my greatest skills is called Tracing, which is an enhanced version of the Projection ability, which molds the energy into a shape. Tracing is much greater than that though. Using both a combination of Structural Analysis and Projection, I am able to analyze a weapon completely, copying the materials, processes, ability, experience and even history of the weapon itself, keeping it as a blueprint in my memory. Using Projection based on that blueprint, I am able to completely re-create the weapon, albeit with slightly lowered capabilities." He explained.

"For example, I can recreate Bulat's spear." He said, gazing at the weapon.

He used Structural Analysis on the spear, completely identifying it. He then turned Structural Analysis off, and held his hand up and to the side.

He traced Bulat's spear, with the long weapon appearing in his hand. Everyone besides Akame gawked, looking between the spear in Shirou's hand and the spear on Bulat's back. He then completely imitated Bulat's fighting style, before dismissing the spear. Everyone but Akame was visibly surprised, and Bulat himself looked as if someone smacked him across the face.

"T-That's gotta be cheating!" he said, pointing accusingly at Shirou in horror. Shirou just smiled sadly at him.

"I can even do this…" he said.

He breathed slowly. It was going to take more focus in order to pull off the idea he had in mind. The weapon was much too powerful for his ordinary chant.

"**I am the bone of my sword.**"

Everyone in the vicinity heard the power in those words. It wasn't just something silly and nonsensical. Those words seemed to hold a great belief in them, a belief Shirou practiced.

Then Shirou projected the weapon he chose. Everyone gasped, and even Akame had been surprised.

Murasame rested in his hands, looking exactly the same as the weapon resting in Akame's sheath.

"It even has the poison effect, although it probably will take up to a minute for the toxin to kill." Shirou explained.

Without a word, Akame drew Murasame slowly, facing Shirou. She then rushed at him.

"Akame! Don't…" Najenda called out but stopped, her breath catching itself as the two of them engaged in combat. Move by move, giving no quarter, each of Akame's moves were easily repelled by Shirou, who also fought back and was blocked in the same style. Akame jumped back, visibly impressed as each of her moves were recreated.

Shirou dismissed Murasame, and continued the discussion as if nothing happened.

"My final, and ultimate skill is called Unlimited Blade Works." He says, the impressive name gathering everyone's attention. "The people in my homeland called it a Reality Marble, named because it creates a certain space which is the reflection of my soul. Using it creates an area where I am able to generate a plain, with a hill serving as the only landmark. Within this space, is all the weapons I have ever seen in my lifetime. I can use these weapons myself, or I can even fire them off as if they were bullets. Swords, hammers, lances, daggers, anything that counts as a weapon is stored and can be used inside my Reality Marble at any time. And I have seen **a lot** of weapons."

That's it. That was the breaking point. Everyone in Night raid now understood just how powerful Shirou was, and the implications of his abilities ran wild in everyone's mind.

"He can recreate Teigu?" Najenda muttered.

"Holy crap, Shirou is like a one-man army…" Leone said, dazed.

"He, he totally copied my style…" Bulat whispered, almost crying.

…And so on and so on. Everyone was very surprised, to put it mildly, and the majority of them were even somewhat scared. Shirou looked at them sadly, recognizing the expression as being the same one with everyone he has ever worked with, bar Saber and Rin.

However, there was one person there who did not look at him out of fear.

"Whoa…" Tatsumi said in admiration. "Shirou, that's amazing! You're so freaking powerful!" he exclaimed, before looking around and seeing everyone in Night Raid shivering in terror at Shirou.

"Why are you guys so repulsed at Shirou?" he asked, not comprehending their fears. "He's still the same person we knew before. Remember, he's not even using these abilities against us, he's fighting with us! He's our comrade…" he said, staring at each of them as they all began to calm down.

"That's right." Leone said, looking suitably abashed. " I forgot he was on our team for a moment." She turned to Shirou and bowed her head. "I'm sorry for being scared of you…" she apologized, ashamed at herself.

Similar apologies followed around, as everyone continued to realize how they were all repelling Shirou away. Shirou began to feel ashamed of himself now, as he didn't think any of their fears weren't legitimate. He was an insanely powerful person in their eyes, and he could sympathize with them. He probably had the same expression of fear as them when he fought Berserker or Gilgamesh.

"It's okay, it's okay, you know?" Shirou repeated, embarrassed that they were still apologizing to him. "More importantly, shouldn't we be celebrating now that we got rid of the intruders?"

"Ha-ah?" Mine questioned, "Why do we need to do that? All we did was eliminating some people who managed to track down our base, they weren't even that strong-"

"Sure," Najenda said, cutting Mine off. "I think that sounds like a great idea."

"Yeah, let's celebrate their first victory!" Bulat and Leone agreed. "We'll go get the alcohol!"

* * *

The next couple of hours were a blur with Shirou. After Night Raid got over their fear of Shirou (Surprisingly quickly. In Shirou's knowledge, he knew people who wouldn't even talk to him for months, if ever again after he revealed his abilities.) they threw a small party. Akame was eating all of the meat, Bulat and Leone got dangerously drunk and started singing. Badly. Mine chased after Leone after Leone threw up over her dress, and Scheele was passed out. Lubbock also got drunk and started crying, (Something about women?), and Najenda was trying to calm everyone down. Tatsumi sat down on the ground, staring up at the moon, and Shirou went and joined him.

(For those of you who want to, boot up Ever-Present Feeling now. Just look it up on Youtube. Have it play until the line cut.)

"Long day, huh?" Shirou said, sitting down on the grass with him. Tatsumi looked at him in acknowledgement.

"Yeah, it kind of was. But it was pretty fun…" Tatsumi stopped, and glanced up at Shirou.

"Are you okay, Shirou?" Tatsumi asked. Shirou said nothing, just staring up at the moon.

"Huh, I don't exactly know myself. I kind of miss my friends at home, and I was just wondering how they were doing." Shirou said, not looking away from the moon. "But at the same time, I'm still glad being here with you guys. Being here is kind of funny actually." He remarked. "Did I ever tell you I was adopted? My adopted father was an assassin you know. I guess at this point I'm left following him, in both job and belief."

"So, it's from his belief that you derived what a hero is?" Tatsumi asked.

"No, that was something I came up with myself after fighting for a long time." Shirou responded. "My dad… what he did was weighing lives on a scale, thinking that all lives were equal. He always sacrificed some to save many more, and in the end, it killed his heart entirely. Until he found me. Lost, alone, on the verge of dying, I was the only one left among the bodies of five-hundred people in a great fire. Then he rescued me." Shirou smiled, remembering when he first met Kiritsugu. "When he found me, the expression on his face was one of pure joy, and I had wondered if I would be as happy if I ever saved someone like that too."

"Is that when you decided to be a hero?" Tatsumi guessed correctly. Shirou glanced at him, and nodded before looking back up at the sky.

"At first, I wanted to save everyone." He began. "It was what a hero would do, I told myself, but I had decided to do it myself. But eventually, I learned that I couldn't save everyone." He said, as Ilya flashed through his head. "I failed to protect someone, a little girl, from someone horrible. She was killed in front of my eyes, and I was powerless to stop it. That's when I vowed to be stronger. So I became stronger, and defeated that horrible person myself. After that, I traveled the world with my girlfriend, and another girl, and I saved many people." He clenched his hands, and then continued. "But so many times, there would be a choice, between saving a smaller group versus a larger group. And I always had to save the larger group first, before the smaller group. I rushed, and always ran back for the others, but all too often I didn't make it." He said sadly.

"Then, my girlfriend was part of the smaller group. She had been disarmed and captured, and I was to choose whether to save the larger group or the group with my girlfriend." He recounted. "Without hesitation, I ran to save her first, disregarding the larger group. For the first time then, I finally learned the happiness my father had when I managed to rescue and hold my unconscious girlfriend's hand." Shirou remembered when he held Rin, as she was being taken away for the Clock Tower's medical magic. "I thought I would lose her…" he breathed, tears streaming down his cheek. "That's when I made up my mind. My father was broken because he always sacrificed even the people he loved to save the larger group. But I vowed to do it differently. I managed to compromise my two beliefs. As long as I breathed, I wanted to save as many people as possible, with my precious people among them too. And you guys are starting to become some of them." He finished.

Tatsumi didn't reply back. He felt like it wouldn't be appropriate. Instead, he stared at the moon as well, watching the round, silver globe with Shirou, admiring all of its curves and craters. It was something so far away, but yet it looks like something one could reach. Something so scarred and beautiful as to be ethereal, but at the same time undeniably there. Shining brightly with light not even its own, it still continues to persist, a fragile yet rugged existence.

He had heard Shirou's tale, and took it to heart.

* * *

The next morning, the Shirou and Tatsumi were summoned in the main meeting hall. Najenda had called for them and Akame. She told both of them that they would be partnered up and taught by Akame, and they found out what role Akame had in Night Raid besides being an assassin.

Shirou was overjoyed. It was food.

That's why Shirou happily hummed as he cooked up more rice for the hungry assassins that occupied the table behind him. This was his element. This was the only thing that sustained him, besides saving people of course. Turning his head, he watched as Tatsumi skinned the carrots with precision, and quickly moved onto separating the leaves of the lettuce.

"Oi, Tatsumi, can you get me seconds?!" Leone yelled as Shirou saw that her bowl was empty.

"Oh, I need some more as well, please!" Sheele asked politely.

"Ah, Tatsumi! Get some more for your Aniki while you're at it!" Bulat called, raising his bowl.

"Hmph, get me more of that as well!" Mine demanded.

"Me too!" Lubbock joined in.

"More…" Akame began.

"Aren't you supposed to be helping us?!" Tatsumi yelled.

"But Shirou and Tatsumi's cooking is so good…" Akame complimented.

"Ha-ah." Tatsumi rubbed his temple before serving everyone again and returning to cook with Shirou.

"Damn it, it kind of feels like we're just here to cook…" Tatsumi muttered to Shirou with a somewhat rueful grin. "When we signed up for this, I kind of expected more danger and excitement, and an actual assassination assignment…" He sighed despondently.

"Tatsumi! Don't take our own assignment lightly!" Shirou chastised Tatsumi. "Remember, you must always be wary of your own enemies! One of those is hunger! If you are malnourished, how are you supposed to be able to fight at your best? A rumbling stomach may leave you unable to block, or to attack, or to evade! Do you want to die? Remember…" Shirou said, his eyes flashing, "Hunger is the enemy!"

"H-hai, Shirou!" Tatsumi stammered, awed at Shirou's passion.

The days slowly passed, and although Night Raid received more assassination assignments, Tatsumi and Shirou were still relegated to the kitchen. Not that Shirou was really complaining. But after all the inactivity, Tatsumi started to get a little restless.

"Day after day, all we do is cook everyone's food…" Tatsumi grumbled.

"It can't be helped." Akame said. "I'm in charge of cooking food for the whole base. And naturally," she said, eyes gleaming as they looked at both Shirou and Tatsumi, "that responsibility falls to both of you as well."

"Okay, I understand that Akame. In fact, I can even greatly appreciate that." Shirou sighed while rubbing his head with his hand. "But why is it you're eating all of our ingredients?"

"I am simply tasting them." Akame said nonchalantly as she ate another piece of a root they gathered.

"No, no you're not." Shirou stated, starting to feel annoyed.

"Ha ha, those aprons really look good on you two!" someone called from the doorway of the kitchen.

Tatsumi and Shirou turned to see Bulat, Scheele, Lubbock and Mine near the doorway, looking as if they were ready to head out. Mine was of course the one who taunted both of them.

"Are you all going somewhere?" Tatsumi asked, a little pissed off at what Mine said.

"Yep." Mine responded smugly. "We got an assassination request for someone in the capital."

"Take good care of the house while we're gone, okay?" Sheele asked them, not knowing she had just majorly damaged Tatsumi's pride.

"Akame and the new guys are housemaids!" Mine started laughing. "Have fun staying here and chopping cucumbers-"

*Clonk!* Mine grabbed her head and massaged where Shirou had hit her with the cooking ladle.

"What do you think you're doing Shirou?!" Mine growled.

"No pissing off the people who cook your food." Shirou told her, before handing three bentos to Leone, Bulat and Lubbock.

"Here are your bentos guys!" Shirou said smiling. "Have fun with work!"

"Wow, this looks delicious!" Leone exclaimed.

_W-wow… Shirou sure is cut out to be a housewife._ Tatsumi thought.

"What! Where's mine?!" Mine whined.

"Here," Shirou said, giving her a bottle with grayish-green powder in it. "There's your lunch. It has all the necessary vitamins and minerals while simultaneously tasting terrible." Shirou explained. "And if you complain-" He said, cutting Mine off before she could grumble, "it will be your dinner when you return too."

Mine could only puff her cheeks and look like she was about to cry before stomping out of the kitchen, followed by the rest of her group, whose heads were shaking in mock disapproval as they all walked out.

Tatsumi thought that it was all highly enjoyable.

"Well then, let's go eliminate some targets." Akame said, taking off her apron.

"You mean hunting for food, don't you?" Tatsumi and Shirou deadpanned.

* * *

The area Akame led them too was deep in the mountains. Surrounded by the forest of the mountain, they stood perched upon a cliff that faced an even bigger cliff, with waterfalls cascading down the bigger cliff and collecting in a shining pool of water below.

Shirou, Tatsumi and Akame had traveled here with baskets on their backs, and once they reached the area, they set the baskets down on the ground.

"This is where our targets live." Akame said explaining to them. "Our targets are the Koga Tuna that live here. Eliminate them and recover the bodies." She ordered. Then, she started taking off her top.

"Uwahhh!" Both guys scream in surprise and turn around quickly. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"What? These clothes provide me the best underwater mobility." Akame answered.

Shirou and Tatsumi turn around again and sigh in relief. "Thank goodness, it was just a swimsuit."

"But, aren't Koga Tuna those very quick and agile fish? How are we supposed to catch them?" Tatsumi asked.

Akame jumped into the water, startling both guys. Within several minutes though, a flurry of fish fly from the water and into her basket as Akame surfaces.

"Jump into the water and sink to the bottom of the water, hiding your presence. When the target comes nearby, strike swiftly." She explained.

Tatsumi strips off his shirt, his eyes glowing with spirit. "Yosh, let's get it on!" he declares before diving in.

"Trace on." Shirou says, reinforcing his speed and reflexes. Then he dives in too.

* * *

"So in the end, Tatsumi only caught two, and Shirou only caught five." Leone restated while they were eating the Koga Tuna.

"For their first times, they did rather well." Najenda pointed out.

"Didn't you yell, 'Let's get it on!' while undressing Tatsumi?" Leone smirked.

"Not good enough." Akame agreed.

"Urk!" Tatsumi responded, angered at her blunt assessment of his skills.

"Ah well, at least the dinner is decent. Even though they can't catch the fish, at least they can cut it." Leone admitted.

When they returned back to base with all the Koga Tuna, Shirou instructed Tatsumi on how to prepare sashimi and sushi. At first, Tatsumi thought that it was weird to eat the fish raw, but after Shirou demonstrated and he tried it, he was more than willing to learn. The result was tons of sushi and sashimi surrounding the fish heads for decoration.

Even though Leone claimed it was decent, she devoured the food twice as fast as normally after she tried the first bite. After Leone tried it, Akame tried some as well, and after her Najenda followed. The result was tons of rapidly disappearing sushi and sashimi. Night Raid females seemed to be ravenous.

"So Leone," Najenda talked while cleaning her mouth. "Tell me about the request we got a few days ago."

Everyone's head snapped up, eager to hear the details.

"Our targets are Gamal, an oil merchant, and Ogre, and Imperial Guard of high ranking. The client was the girlfriend of one of the victims of a crime string they set up. Apparently, every time Gamal committed a crime, Ogre would manage to frame someone. The fiancé of the client was executed underneath one of these crimes. However, before he died, he sent a letter to the client about their scheme, having overheard it in a jail cell. This is the payment," Leone said, putting a sack containing a large amount of money on the table.

"Wow, that's a lot of money…" Tatsumi remarked. Leone's grip on her arm clenched.

"I smelled the scent of a venereal disease on her. She must have sold her body a lot to earn this." She told Tatsumi, who froze in horror.

Shirou's hands slowly clenched in anger, but unclenched as he forced himself to calm down.

"Did you check out her story?" Najenda questioned.

"Yes, I overheard one of their conversations inside a merchant's attic. They're guilty"

"It's decided then." Najenda said, puffing out smoke from her cigarette. "Night Raid will accept this request. We won't let these heinous monsters live to see another day!"

"Taking out Gamal will be simple, but Ogre will be a formidable opponent." Leone elaborated.

"How so?" Shirou asked. He wanted information. If Ogre was the most dangerous threat, he would deal with him.

"Ogre the Demon. Named because of his skill with the sword, which makes him an object of terror among criminals of the capital. Usually, he patrols the city with his subordinates. Other times, he spends his time resting in the military garrison. Gamal occasionally visits his private room to give him the bribes. Due to his station, on his days off he leaves the garrison to go drinking on Main Street, near the Imperial Palace. That is the optimal time to take him down." Najenda explained.

"Hmm… it does seem like it would be easiest to strike him down during his days off." Tatsumi agreed.

"Maybe we could lead him into a side street or empty building, where there are no witnesses, and eliminate him then." Shirou suggested.

"But it will be dangerous for Akame, who has had her face identified, to try and assassinate him by the palace. The security is extremely tight around there." Najenda mused.

"Should we wait for the other group to return?" Akame asked.

"But we don't know when they'll return, correct?" Tatsumi objected.

"Yes." Akame said.

"Then send us in instead! We'll kill those slimy bastards ourselves!" Tatsumi yelled, smacking the table.

"Oh, you sure sound confident. Do you want to take Ogre on yourself?" Najenda smirked.

"Eh? What?" Tatsumi said, confused.

"Not that I can handle it. But you sure sound eager to kill Ogre." Leone agreed, teasing.

"As you are now, you'll never be able to beat him." Akame stated, causing Tatsumi to grit his teeth.

*SLAM!* "While we're here debating on this, more innocent people are probably being framed for their crimes! If that's the case, I'll take him down myself!" Tatsumi declared. "That feeling of having your most cherished person taken away from you… I don't want anyone else to experience that…" He said with a tinge of regret.

_I'll show Akame! I'll protect the people of the capital and kill the target by myself!_ Tatsumi thought stubbornly.

Shirou couldn't agree more. "Yes, we need to stop these people soon, before anyone else gets hurt because of them. If we don't act soon, we'll leave more people in danger."

"Okay then, I'll approve of your decision." Najenda nodded at Tatsumi. "Tatsumi, go eliminate Ogre."

"Well said Tatsumi!" Leone approved, giving him a friendly but HARD smack on the back. "It's nice to see a junior who's so dedicated to his job!"

"Leone, Akame and Shirou, I leave you to target Gamal." Najenda finished her orders, still contently smoking on her cigarette.

Shirou looked over at Tatsumi, hesitant in letting him take the most dangerous part of the job. "Are you sure you can take him alone Tatsumi? Don't overestimate your abilities." He warned his friend.

"It's fine." Tatsumi waved off his concern. "I'll take this guy down easily, even if he is a tough fight. How about that Akame?" he said to the black-haired killer. "When I have to, I'm not afraid of stepping up!"

Akame seemed to darken for a bit. "…Where does this self confidence come from?" she asks him. "You haven't had a successful mission until you've handed in you first report." She said angrily, turning away from him. "At this rate, your overconfidence will be the death of you."

Tatsumi seemed to have been struck hard by her words, anger showing on his face. _Damn it…_ he thought. _I'll definitely succeed in this mission, and then I'll finally make you see that I'm worthy of your respect!_

Shirou looked at both of his comrades. It seemed obvious to Shirou that she was honestly worried about him, but refused to show it without undermining his capabilities. He wondered if she had a bad experience like that previously…

* * *

"Take this road straight down and then you'll reach Main Street." Leone pointed as they stared at a wide avenue with gigantic statues of a griffin on the left, and a dragon on the right. Beyond the avenue on both sides were an expanse of water, showing a shimmering reflection of the building beyond. Beyond the road stood an immense, elaborate structure that stood well above the rest of the buildings. It didn't take a genius to figure out that that was the palace of the ruler of the city.

Only Shirou, Tatsumi and Leone were together at the moment, Akame had to stay away from the palace lest she be recognized. Also, Shirou could guess that she didn't want to see Tatsumi after their recent argument. Must be a pride thing.

"Got it!" Tatsumi confirmed, and turned to leave.

"Wait," Leone stopped him. "You wanna hear a story about Akame's past?"

"Huh?" Tatsumi said, blinking. Shirou decided to listen as well.

"When Akame was young, both her and her sister were bought somewhere in the capital. It's actually a pretty common thing for poor parents to do." Leone shrugged, noticing their sad faces. Then she continued.

"Anyway, when her parents sold her to those people, she was enrolled in assassination training. She and her sister were both taught how to kill people by the people who owned her. She survived through that hell. And then she worked for the capital, as a flawless assassin." Leone explained.

"But each time she took a life, she could feel more of the imperial capital's darkness. That's when she met boss, who was her target at the time, and boss was able to convince her to join the Revolutionary Army that actually cared about its people. By that time…" Both the guys listened closely. "Most of her comrades had already died at that point."

"Do you understand what I'm trying to say Tatsumi?" Leone asked.

"Yeah, as a newbie, I'm just supposed to listen to the professional killer, right?" Tatsumi said, walking away.

"… There's something more to that story, isn't there?" Shirou asked when Tatsumi was out of earshot.

"… Maybe. He'll understand after today." Leone said, watching Tatsumi's back before turning away. "C'mon, we have our own mission to accomplish."

* * *

Shirou, Akame and Leone rushed through the trees to the giant mansion in the distance. The mansion looked really big, and Shirou wondered if they knew how to get around in the giant building.

"Wow, that's a pretty big mansion. So this is Gamal's mansion?" Shirou asked as they drew near. It seemed to be built like a Japanese pagoda, a tall building with gently sloping roofs and many levels. It looked more like a tower than a mansion, except for the fact that it was surrounded by huge walls by which guards regularly patrolled around the grounds of the tower.

"Yes, this is the mansion that he built using his profits from illegal means, which he then pinned on innocent people." Leone growled, baring her teeth. "Let's get this done."

Shirou nodded, and turned to Akame, who was jumping the trees silently, lost in thought.

"Are you okay, Akame?" Shirou asked. He didn't want Akame to be out of it when they finally reached the mansion.

"Yes." She said simply, snapping back to reality.

"Worried about Tatsumi?" Shirou guessed.

"Yes. First missions have a high mortality rate, and Tatsumi seemed to be too overconfident." She explained.

"You know, he's probably only taking on Ogre to gain your approval." Shirou told her.

"…" Akame didn't say anything, only staring straight ahead.

"Oi, if you say it like that Shirou, some people may think that you meant something else…" Leone teased.

"I don't even know if he likes anybody in Night Raid Leone." Shirou countered, unfazed. "I can't speak for him if he likes anybody in Night Raid, but I know he's only trying to win Akame's respect as a comrade."

"We're here." Akame interrupted them, stopping them with her arm. They were right outside of the walls, above a squad of ten guards in formation.

"Just a question..." Shirou began. "Are these guards also guilty like Gamal?"

"Well, Gamal had to have told them about where their pay comes from. Knowing his sick personality, he probably bragged about it." Leone guessed. "So yeah, they probably are informed about their employer."

"Alright then," Shirou began. "I'll take all of them down myself."

"What?! How are you going to do that?" Leone asked, amazed at Shirou's proclamation.

"Can you?" Akame asked Shirou, not as a concern for his safety, but as a challenge to him.

"Trace on." Shirou replied, reinforcing his body and tracing Kanshou and Bakuya.

Shirou threw Kanshou and Bakuya at the guards near the back of the formation, piercing their chests and killing them instantly.

"Who's there?!" The rest of the guards shouted, fear filling their voices as the bodies of their comrades fell to the ground. They bunched together, the group of eight moving away from the corpses. They looked around wildly, but never saw the dark shadow approaching them from the air, nor the gigantic axe-sword of rock he wielded.

Shirou jumped in between all eight of them, holding the axe-sword from Hercules, and smashed one of the guards into the ground, crushing and not cleaving the man as he bashed in his head. He then swung around in a large arc, rending the rest of the guards' sides as he flung them backwards. They all fell, bleeding from their stomachs, and laid down on the pavement of the mansion grounds.

"Urgh…" One if the guards got up slowly, covering the massive flow of blood from the gash in his side, as if he was trying to keep his intestines from spilling out. He was the one Shirou struck first with the large arc, when he had the least amount of speed and force. "Yoouuu!" he roared, charging at Shirou while drawing his blade.

Shirou traced Azoth, a ritual dagger Rin got from Kotomine, and fired it at him. It pierced his neck, and the guard stumbled, as if tripping, before collapsing to the ground.

The whole exchange took less than fifteen seconds, and Shirou completely obliterated all of the guards.

"Wow…" Leone gaped as she jumped down. "I actually forgot you could do that."

"Yeah, I was actually kind of ticked-off that you thought that I would have problems with them." Shirou admitted.

"But wait, why didn't you use Murasame to kill them?" Leone asked.

"I already have something like that in my armory of weapons. It's called Gae Bolg, a lance that always hits the heart, no matter what. It even manipulates time and space to strike at the one it is used against. But I hate using weapons like that." Shirou explained. "The ability to end lives so easily... is not something that should ever be used so lightly, even against those I desperately hate. It put so little value in the strength and lives of humans that it sickens me. No offense to you, Akame." He apologized.

Akame nodded before turning to the building. "Eliminate." She said, entering the pagoda.

* * *

"Excuse me, Mr. Ogre?" Tatsumi asked, with a hood that covered most of his facial features. "I have something that I want to discuss with you…"

Ogre turned, drunk but still fairly lucid as he turned to face Tatsumi. "Yeah, so spit it out then!" he urged.

Tatsumi looked around, as if afraid of the passerby. "Um, it's not something we should talk about in public. Let's go to someplace… quieter."

"Hmm? Why's that?" Ogre asked.

"Because I can't reveal my reason for contacting you until we have privacy." Tatsumi persuaded him.

Ogre shrugged, but made the motion for Tatsumi to lead him. Tatsumi turned around, grinning as he led his target to a dark alley.

* * *

Shirou, Akame and Leone rushed through the tower, killing every guard they encountered. Shirou sliced their heads off with Kanshou and Bakuya, Akame killed them with the lethal poison of Murasame, and Leone turned into a human-lion hybrid, a form looking exactly like her except for the ears, claws and strength of a lion, and crushed the guards' throats. Running through each floor, Leone used her heightened senses to smell for Gamal, who she said smelled like a mix between a toad, oil, and a whole lot of fat.

Finally, they found a person that Leone said the smell belonged to. Indeed, he did look like a toad; he was short, squat and ugly. His skin looked dirty brown, and his head held no hair, only liver spots of age. He was wearing a yukata, which looked very expensive, and his mouth was full of dirty yellow teeth.

In short, he was the ugliest person Shirou had ever seen.

"Aaahhh!" he yelled, seeing them. "Guards!" he called out for his retainers. Unfortunately for him, they had already slain all of his guards on this floor, which would be evidenced by the carnage of the previous corner they had turned in the hallway.

Seeing as no guards came, he turned to run, until Shirou traced swords in front of him, preventing his escape.

Leone grabbed him, and turned him to face Akame, who stepped in and with a thrust pierced Gamal's heart. The slimy oil merchant only let out a grunt of pain as his heart was stabbed, and Leone let his lifeless body fall to the ground.

"Welp, that's one target down!" Leone said cheerfully. "I wonder how Tatsumi's doing?"

* * *

"This place should be fine. So, what is it?" Ogre demanded. The quiet alley was dark and had no pedestrians, which meant no witnesses. Tatsumi steeled himself for what he was about to do.

_Sayo, Ieyasu… Give me strength…_ Tatsumi pleaded, before throwing himself on the ground.

"Please sir! Allow me to enter the capital defense force!" Tatsumi pleaded.

"Ah, I thought it might be something like that." Ogre rubbed his forehead, and started walking away. "Apply through the normal processes then, dumbass."

"But," Tatsumi said, almost whispering, "In these hard times, it's so very difficult to get in…" He drew his sword lightly, the steel rasping as it grinded against his sheath.

Ogre slowly drew his sword as well. "Is that so? Then that means you weren't strong enough to pass the entrance exam!" he roared, turning.

Tatsumi dashed past him while drawing his sword in a wide arc, slicing between the gap of the sword tip and the sheath. A spray of blood accompanied his blade as it exited out of Ogre's body.

_No hesitation and such strength…!_ Ogre thought as he fell. _To think, someone like that still existed and opposed me…_

Ogre's body fell to the ground, and Tatsumi turned away. "I did it…" he breathed.

Then, Tatsumi remembered. "Oh yeah, Akame said that I really didn't do it until I handed in my report. I better go and turn-"

He gasped, and out of instinct put his sword between his right side and Ogre's sword. He skidded back from the massive force, facing the behemoth that he enraged.

"Did you think…" Ogre began, rasping with pain, "That I would be done in by a SNEAKY LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT LIKE YOU?!" He screamed, walking towards Tatsumi.

"I'm Ogre the Demon! I am the king of this city because I am the strongest!" He continued to rant. "The weak will be eaten by the strong, because that is the law of nature! So brat…" He twisted his face, looking like a horrible monster, "LET ME DEVOUR YOU!"

"Like hell!" Tatsumi yelled back, jumping into the air as he let gravity carry him towards Ogre. "I'll eliminate you Ogre!" he declared, trying to land a horizontal slash as their blades intersected.

*Clang!* Their blades crashed together, as Ogre countered using a vertical overhead slash. Tatsumi slid down the Ogre's blade, and supported his blade with his other hand as Ogre exerted his taller height and greater weight on him, causing the ground beneath them to crack.

"I see…" Ogre said in a sudden moment of insight. "You're from Night Raid, right?" he guessed.

"You sure seem to know a lot about me… Who sent you to kill me? Was it the bitch whose fiancé I executed the other day?" he guessed correctly again. "I knew I should have killed her as well, but I overlooked her… Still, it's not too late to finish her off!"

Tatsumi's eyes widened as Ogre started laughing maniacally, before explaining his plan.

"First, I'll track that bitch down, and then I'll find out the names of everyone she was related to…" He started, relishing the demented thought. "I'll torture her and break her until she has just the slightest bit of sanity left, and I'll force her to get on her knees and watch as I slaughter every last one of her relatives!"

"But of course…" Tatsumi gasped as the pressure intensified. "That's after I kill you!"

Tatsumi knew he had to end this quick, or Ogre would over-power him. Jumping to the side, he spun his body in an axis parallel to the ground, bringing his sword around and through Ogre's arms, before moving his body so he could dive at Ogre from the air.

"What?" Ogre reacted as he saw his arms spin around in the air, disconnected from him entirely. The splattering blood looked like rain at Tatsumi dove.

_He's like everyone else in this wretched city… Drunk on his own power… Doing whatever he wants…_

"Trash like you…" Tatsumi said, spinning his body again, "Is not needed!"

Tatsumi scored several clean slashes through Ogre, slicing through both his shoulders and both sides of his waist, the spinning adding the extra force to let him cut through.

Ogre fell to the ground, and the Demon was reduced to nothing more than sliced raw meat in a uniform.

Tatsumi left the alley, swinging his sword to clean off the extra blood before sheathing it.

* * *

Tatsumi returned to base, getting ready to brag about how he defeated the toughest target by himself. Walking into the meeting hall, he saw Najenda, Shirou, Akame and Leone near Najenda's chair.

"Welcome back." Najenda called from her chair. "Did you complete the job?"

"Yeah, I killed Ogre." Tatsumi replied, walking to them.

"Nice job eliminating him by yourself." Najenda praised.

"Thanks." Tatsumi replied, before turning to Akame and Shirou. "See guys, I told you that I could finish the job myself! I didn't even get scratched!" He bragged as Shirou and Akame walked toward him.

Then Akame took off his shirt, Leone pulled off his pants and Shirou stabbed him.

"Wha-wha-WHAT!" He screamed, grabbing onto his briefs before they could remove that too. "Why are you stripping me?!" he yelled, his face flushed. "And why did you stab me Shirou!"

Shirou twirled the dagger around. "Remember this?" He asked, showing him the dagger of Hippocrates. "And for the record, we were worried about you. Taking on the toughest target yourself is reckless, you know. Akame and Leone wanted to check for injuries and I stabbed you to heal them."

Akame took his hand. "Thank goodness you're okay." She smiled. "I've had too many comrades die because they didn't report their wounds and the wounds were poisoned. I didn't want you to join them too."

She held his hand delicately, and Tatsumi blushed. "You did well for your first mission, and you already earned my respect when you first joined the group. Don't be so adamant next time. Remember, you can count on us if you need help."

"Thanks Akame. I'm sorry for worrying you, and I'll count on you to help me with my problems from now on!" Tatsumi agreed.

"Oh?" Leone said, smiling mischievously as she watched the two. "You're saying those kinds of things while naked? What kind of problems does a teenage boy have while naked while facing a beautiful girl, I wonder? How bold… Kyahhh!" she screamed in excitement and embarrassment at the dirty thoughts in her mind.

"What?!" Tatsumi blushed rapidly. "You guys are the ones who stripped me!" He protested, blushing fiercely.

Shirou sighed and face-palmed. This situation was so messed up in retrospect…

Najenda decided to interrupt. "Through cooking you learned communication, and through hunting you learn assassination. Akame was teaching you the whole time you know." She said, and stood up. "Alright, Tatsumi, Shirou! You'll be working under Mine next!"

"WHAT?!" Shirou and Tatsumi screamed, fear displayed in their features.

"Good luck…!" Leone said snickering, before rolling on the floor laughing.

This change did not bode well for them for the next couple of days.

* * *

Author's Notes: Remember when I said Shirou wouldn't use Akame's sword? Well, I guess I kind of half lied. He won't be using it to kill people though, so no to the people who want me to make him use it.

Hello everyone. Did you like the chapter? I read some more reviews and received some PMs, so I'll be answering some questions now.

As for the current chapter, why does he reveal his powers so easily? Because he thinks that they are good people, and because none of them could probably beat him with UBW active. These people cannot compare to the servants he has fought before, so he, having survived the Grail War, is easily stronger than Night Raid as a whole. Besides, he already heard their reasoning for fighting, and he considers them to be like heroes anyway, so why not?

Why do they accept Shirou so easily? Cause he already agreed to join their team and helped them kill the mercenaries. Plus, if he offers to use his massive arsenal for them, who are they to complain?

Why do I want you to listen to Ever-Present Feeling while reading Shirou's life story to Tatsumi? Cause I wrote that while listening to the music, and it was so damn appropriate.

How is he able to use Murasame? Cause his ability allows him to bypass weapon conditionals. Unless you really think that Shirou is a king, how else is he able to use Caliburn? Besides, his affinity is with swords, so he is the closest to wielding Murasame besides Akame.

Why is Shirou not abusing Gae Bolg? Cause that belongs in a crack fic. Not that I have anything against those, I actually enjoy them myself, but this isn't a crack fic.

Why are we killing Gamal in a pagoda, and why is said pagoda his mansion? Cause I have been playing Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, (the good ones, not Gate to Infinity) and it helped Shirou be a lot more awesome. Problems? Bring it on! :)

Why do I use so many horizontal lines? Cause after the first chapter, I realized writing "X years ago..." sucks. Plus, way too many scene changes. In the future, I will probably keep using way too many line cuts, so accept this apology and keep remembering it in the future. I just don't wanna keep writing this again. :(

Why does Shirou stab Tatsumi? Look at the Author's Notes on Chapter Two.

Why am I answering questions like this? ... I don't know.

As for review questions:

Rin and Saber are not going in the world of Akame ga Kiru, and Shirou will not be obtaining a harem willingly. HE. IS. STAYING. FAITHFUL.

People will die, it's part of the story. It's why I like Fate/stay night and Akame ga Kiru so much. Death is natural and beautiful, and it provides an impact that makes people appreciate the deceased characters more than them staying alive. does Look at Ace, from One Piece. I cried for an hour over Ace. Naruto? I wailed when Asuma died. Kingdom Hearts? I cried for _two hours_ when Xion died. And now I sound depressed...

Gae Bolg killing Organism type Teigu? I dunno about that one. It'd make things way too easy.

Kill Wild Hunt? I so desperately want to, they are utter trash, but I can't. *Sigh*, only in a crack fic...

Shirou's gonna be teamed up with whoever Tatsumi is. He's gonna be Tatsumi's best friend, a pillar of support for him. And no, they are not gonna be those kinds of friends. That is just wrong.

NO. NO HAREMS. OH GOD, SO MANY REQUESTS FOR HAREMS. GET THEM AWAY. But seriously though. If Shirou wanted a harem, I'm sure he would've made out with all the ladies he rescues. But that is not Shirou. He even only has sex only out of necessity. Love too, but they all began out of necessity.

As for all the people that enjoy and like this fic, I thank you. It is always gratifying for a person to know they are appreciated, and I'm no exception.

Well, I think that's I have to say this time. Look forward to the next chapter, which might not be a while since I still have to do summer homework and since I'm going on vacation. Sayonara!

Edit:

Thanks to TheAra'dor, who told me about Shirou's arias and reminded me about the parallels between Teigu and Noble Phantasms. I corrected the story according to your advice. I also looked into the wiki and played the VN again to fix any of my mistakes, although if anybody sees any, make sure to tell me about it in a review, or PM me.

Update:

So, I am not really sure how to do this but here we go. I sincerely hope that everyone who enjoyed the fiction would read this, and everyone who hated it to maybe see this at least. I know it's too bad that the one whose review affected me in the first place isn't going to give two shits about this, but I still want to state this as it concerns the future of this fiction.

So I read angrycritique's review and I got a little upset. At first it felt like something bad was sinking down into the pit of my stomach, and then I got a little angry and thought that my fan fiction is not for everyone. Then I accepted it for what it was, a review, and generally got over my initial upset. And then, as I reread it, I began to really appreciate and respect it. Because stuff like this hurts when it's true, and I feel like I should at the very least respond to this.

He was pretty brutally honest with me, and I can't blame him for that. But even though his comments felt more than a little barbed (Literature-Jesus?), I got past those and got down to what he was really trying to say.

It feels a little weird that I like a review that doesn't point out my story's flaws kindly, but here we go. (Not that I hate unkind reviews, I liked this one a lot, even though I hated it at first. But that's human nature, to deny and scorn what is potentially threatening to you or your interests. And then man the fuck up.)

I knew that my story wasn't going to be the best from the beginning. I'm not even close to perfect; I don't even have that great of an English grade. But I wrote it anyways because it was self fulfilling in some respects. But that doesn't make it right, doesn't make it right to just rehash a story over with Shirou as nothing but an extra presence. He pointed that out, and I have to agree. Shirou is the only "twist" that I had supplied so far.

He also pointed out how OoC I made Shirou. To be honest, I thought that being around Rin for two years would change his viewpoints a little, but I can see how someone could get upset with that. To have Shirou's nature altered must be more than a little frustrating, especially if you liked the previous Shirou's personality. I guess I got in the mindset of "Shirou should act more human" when in reality, he isn't like a normal human. Rin calls him distorted, and by altering his personality, I destroyed the distortion. I blame myself for that because I read, enjoyed and drew some inspiration from Gabriel blessing's stories.

And I'm so, so, so incredibly sorry about using the weird curses from HoS. I am so, incredibly sorry. Once I realized how cringe-worthy they really are, I took them out, so I saved my fic from that at least. But that doesn't mean I saved it from the other mistakes.

About Shirou not questioning the organization he joined and about Night Raid suddenly accepting that they were heroes, I can understand his complaint. Each character had different origins, were created to act like people molded from their origins, and I bashed that in when I just made Shirou auto-join in.

I was planning to make Shirou contemplate their end goals and impacts later in the story, and was going to base it off of real life revolutions, but I guess I can't now.

I can get how angry he was about my flow in the story. A flow is called such because it is supposed to glide naturally through its course, like water. Sure, there are little bumps, such as rocks in the water, but it still deviates back into something smooth and natural. What I essentially ended up doing was throwing a bunch of boulders into my flow, and created nothing but whitewater, a chaotic swirl upon a disturbed and jagged pathway.

And about making Shirou an info-dump, I was trying to summarize what had happened before the story. But then I read his recommended story, and I immediately saw what he meant. The author of that story managed to incorporate little pieces of back-story that essentially didn't disrupt and stop the story again. It was masterfully done.

And about how he signed off his review, well, I liked it. He made it really blunt how bad he thought my story was, and he pointed out all of the critical errors. He could have been more of a jerk, and completely dangle what was wrong with my story out of my reach, but he gave me the errors plain and simple. Kind of reminded me of Angry Joe on Youtube. He made it clear that he didn't care about retaliation, and although I appreciate all reviews, the one's I wanted to see more often than not were the ones that criticized my work.

Some people just need a slap to get them to notice what's in front of them. By definition, I think he gave me a kick in the balls, because that review hurt a lot and seriously damaged my pride, but I think I noticed! In the end at least, I think I was too angry the first couple of times I read it to properly comprehend it.

As it is, I want to send him a private message thanking him, but I'm not going too. It just seems weird to do that when he really hated my writing in general. Probably hates me to an extent as well, seeing as how he worded some of his comments.

And that leaves the question… What's going to happen to this fic? And to be honest, I'm not sure as well. His assessment either made me want to give it up entirely, or to rewrite it entirely. I even wonder if someone else wants to continue this instead of me. So I'm not sure what to do about this. But at least know that this road is closing, as shoddily constructed as it was, and maybe improved into something much greater, something I can actually be proud of.

So sorry for taking up your time, sorry for breaking the promise of a new chapter and sorry for pissing off those who really want me to continue and those who never even wanted me to write something like this in the first place.

Some people may be wondering why I am giving this up so easily just because of a simple review. My answer is that it only takes one decently honest person to clear your mind which had been cluttered by praise and pride. And I respect him for that.

So, we're closing the curtains on this fanfiction. Apologies, and goodbye.


End file.
